But these days, we will tell him it is rude to do that and that he has to learn to wait his turn, or at least say excuse me. It’s slow to catch on.

We also try to use words like kind, gentle, wait and “magic-words” (please and thank you) in our instructions everyday. The thing that really drives me crazy is his boundary and authority testing. So the 2 phrases he gets an ear full of these days are:

If you don’t listen to instructions, you’ll get hurt;
and
If you don’t follow instructions you get nothing.

Caitlin has also interjected adults’ conversations before with “I AM TALKING!” where we’d immediately snap back at her with “Excuse me?? What did you say?”

She knows she’s wrong, so immediately she’d apologise. But of course then we do let her say what she needs to say, however (un)important it may be to us adults; lest she feels neglected. Usually after getting whatever it was off her chest, she’s off in her little world again…

he tries this same behavior with me and my husband and we simply can not let it fly. (he’ll tell us to ‘be quiet’ ’shut up’ and a whole slew of other things!!) yes, it hurts to have to discipline your child, but in the end it’s all about teaching them right from wrong. and you definitely don’t want a defiant teen on your hand who is so out of control because you failed to take control earlier on.

my son is VERY strongwilled and independent and although we love those qualities about him, he needs to know there are boundaries and things we will just not accept from him.

I usually remove my daughter from the area (time-out) and take away whatever it is she’s crying over.

And then I tell her that monsters will eat her legs when she’s sleeping if she doesn’t start behaving.

It must be working because she has trouble sleeping at night.