Tips and suggestions to tame the wild child of the house. 

I have lived with a destructive child for a good part of my life.  My sister was the demon child that behaved for strangers and at school and terrorized the family at home.  She however was nothing compared to my youngest child.  People teased me when I was pregnant about the mistake of naming my daughter Angel.  They said that she would be the child of Satan and a nightmare on my hands. 

I hoped they were wrong.  While she is not quite the child of Satan, she is far from the Saint I wish she was.  She is quite mean, short-tempered, moody and loves to destroy things.  I have however learned several ways to help curb her attitude and destructive fits.  I am going to share these with you so that you are able to learn to interact with your child if my daughter reminds you of your own child. 

My daughter Angel is only 2 years old, and she is quite opinionated, while her older sister is more passive and sweet.  I will admit some of my methods do seem a bit extreme, however we have tried being passive and coddling her in the past with no results.  These suggestions have seen wonderful results. 

Suggestion #1.  Potty Training.  We tried for the longest time to allow her to work this at her own pace.  This resulted in a naked child running around my house because she was mad her diaper was the tiniest bit wet.  I do not like my animals making a mess in the house, and will not tolerate it from them, so I certainly was not going to tolerate this from her either.  After several months of unsuccessful attempts at potty training, my husband and I decided to do a cold-turkey approach to diapers.  We cut her off completely.  She was not allowed one at night or even for naps.  None, period at all no matter what.  This drove us nuts for the first 2 days.  However, she quickly realized that while she hated wet diapers nothing was worse than wet underwear.  Within a week of this she was potty trained during the day, and had a 75% success rate for naps as well.  Night is still a work in progress but I am very happy with our success here so far.  Gone are the days of throwing diapers down the hall and sitting in the floor screaming because we won’t allow her to have a new diaper. 

Suggestion #2.  Inappropriate Use of Crayons.  My oldest had a brief experience thinking that her bedroom wall was a drawing board, but nothing prepared me for the youngest.  This child will draw on anything she can reach, with anything she can get her hands on.  The big screen TV, the fish tank and of course walls have all been fair game to her.  My solution and stance has been no writing utensils in her hands period unless an adult can supervise, as well as giving her a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to clean the marks up herself.  After thinking the idea of decorating the TV was cute the first time and giggling as mommy and daddy struggled to remove all the crayon, I decided at the next occurrence to require her to clean it.  Since it was so much fun to draw, it should be a blast to remove.  This was met with some resistance, however after cleaning the TV 3 times and her walls 2 times; we have quickly decided it is not as much fun to draw on the walls and electronics as it used to be.  I love those erasers and highly recommend them to anyone with kids; they are a lifesaver for furniture, walls, and floors around the house. 

Suggestion #3.  Foul Language.  After going to my mother’s house to visit and Angel calmly walking up to my mother and loudly proclaiming “F*&# YOU!!!!!!!” We consented that she had a horrible potty mouth.  To address this problem we have the policy of naughty words are met with a slap and a stern look that would make a grown man cry.  After a few slaps, the looks alone have become effective in quieting her down quickly and easily.  With the correct look, she will stop speaking instantly and sit down.  With no further physical contact.  I think that without using the look at the same time as the slap it would not have been as effective, however I am no longer embarrassed to take my child out in public her sailor mouth is now much cleaner, with no soap involved. 

Suggestion #4.  Destroying Books.  Oh, the little darling has destroyed a great many books.  However, she has a huge love and admiration for the Care Bears.  I was so lucky to find a talking Care Bear that reads books!  We have now convinced her that if she tears up the books that the Care Bear will cease to work!  Now she is much nicer to her books, all of them, even the books that are not Care Bears and has been treating her talking Care Bear with a great deal of respect.  The little bear’s head still moves, as does his mouth and eyes.  So far so good.  I do feel a tiny bit guilty about lying, but it is a small white lie, and has the benefit of now it is hard to find her without a book in her hands and she is looking at it with the bear reading to her.  Hardly any time left for me to read to her!  But at least the books in the house are now safe. 

Suggestion #5.  Love to throw things?  Mine do, my solution to this is to pull out the vacuum.  I have purchased a very small and extremely lightweight vacuum that I found at Wal-Mart for $20.  Best purchase I ever made, now whenever either child throws something, they find themselves vacuuming a part of the house.  My husband came home from the grocery store to find out 4 year old vacuuming and about died laughing.  However, she throws things much less now than she did, and Angel my problem child has stopped completely.  She likes the idea of sweeping, so sweeping was not a good punishment idea, the little kid sized broom just amused her too much to behave.