Wednesday, May 7, 2008
On the road
Okay Super mommies, here is my dilemma. My two year old terrorizes her older siblings in the car. Poor Kenzi has to sit next to her and gets hit, scratched, pinched and her hair pulled almost daily during drives to and from school or running errands. How do you put a kid in time out while you are driving? I tell her to fold her arms, but you can guess how well that works. I've tried playing silly kids songs on the stereo and bringing toys along to occupy her, but it doesn't work for long. For some reason she prefers to pass her time by beating on her sister. Any suggestions?
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5 comments:
This sounds really horrible (like something you would do to a cat - options are so limited in the car), but try spraying her in the face with a squirt bottle of water - no warnings - when you catch her in the act. My three-year-old is our terror in the car (and everywhere else, for that matter), and she would actually really like to be squirted in the face. I'm sure she would do naughty things just to get this wonderful punishment, so we don't ever do this to her. But if you think your daughter would hate it, it might be worth a try. The only solution for my three year-old is to take away whatever toys she has as a punishment, but even then, it doesn't stop her because it's fun to bug other poor, unsuspecting siblings. We're getting a bigger car where no one can touch each other. That's our solution.
My mom used to threaten to pull the car over and spank our bare bottom in front of everyone when we misbehaved in the car (at the store, at church I don't know if Robyn remembers this) apparently it worked for me. I guess I didn't want anyone to see my bare bottom? I think she threatened to drop us off to, to stop the car and leave us there? She never did this however. Also, my friend uses one cool toy (etch-a-sketch or learning leap frog) just for the car they can't play with this unless they are in the car and if they behave badly, they can't play with in the car anymore. Try these it may work it may not... sorry I couldn't be of more help, my little one is only 14 months so if she misbehaves (crying out of sheer boredom), I sing to her and she stops crying.
OK, it was me who deleted my comments before. Here's my suggestion: tie her hands together so she can't bug her sister. Tell her that you will untie her the next time you are in the car together until she misbehaves and then you will tie her hands together again. If you do it enough times I expect she will stop. When I have to give Ian time outs in public places I hold him on my lap and hold his hands together in one of my hands or crossed in front of him holding his hands so he can't move. He absolutely hates it and calms down in a reasonable amount of time. I think you will have to do the hand tying several times before your daughter gets it, but I think it will work. I think an old pair of tights would be the best thing to tie her hands with because they are soft and have a lot of stretch and she can't really hurt her sister by bashing her with a pair of tights. I like the spray in the face with water idea, but think it would too hard to do it while you are driving. Maybe you could let your other daughter spray her in the face, but then maybe that would turn her into a bully.
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