Bad Behavior

My Almost 2 year olds are constantly going at it with eachother....slealing toys, hitting, pinching, pulling hair, sometimes even biting....I am constantly saying no, pulling them apart, redirecting attention to something else.....BUT.....it starts all over again less than 5 minutes later....

Anyone have any advice on aming bad behavior??

 

I definitely do time out for biting (and maybe hitting with toys) - that seems more serious than the other behaviors you describe. I would also try to ignore minor misbehavior (screaming, tugging, etc). I love having twins, but the fighting is a very painful part of parenting them. It's so hard when they are so young and don't really understand.

 

If you haven't already, I would give time outs a try. By two, they're usually getting pretty close to understanding the concept. For my girls, the keys are consistency & giving them as little attention as possible while they're in the time out. We did a minute per year of age.

We also had luck with toy time outs when they were fighting excessively over something specific - or using the timer to indicate when their turn with a favorite toy was at an end & they had to share with their sister.

 

I agree with PP's, time outs have worked wonders in our house. Even putting favorite toys in time outs have also helped. I did the same as Rachel, a minute in time out for their age (at 3=3minutes for my kids) and being consistent is a big help. Good luck!

 

i have tried time out---I put them in the time out area---they sit there and laugh and the second i trun my back to talk away they get up and out of the area...do i physically sit in time out with them??

 

I use their cribs for time out (just had to start doing them a few days ago!). But we have a one story house, and it is easy to get to the cribs....you could try a pack-n-play or playpen (if they won't climb out) in an out of the way place.

 

When we first started time out, I would sit them on my lap facing away from me. Then, I bought a small area rug & explained they need to sit on it for time out. For the first while, I would sit next to them during the time out, but I would avoid eye contact & interaction with them. If they got off the rug, I picked them up & put them back on without saying anything. It wasn't long till they learned to stay there.

Now, they have to go to their room for time out because, frankly, they're just too loud & obnoxious when they're ticked about something & I don't want to listen to them scream for 3 minutes straight.

 

I do time outs in their cribs, however it does not seem to work. They throw the contents of the crib out and get a kick out of it...they both laugh and think it's the funniest thing ever...
For biting I usually pick up the hurt one and push away the biter. Gently pushing him and sternly telling that it's not allowed to bite, because it hurts seems to work. It is less and less episode in my house.

 

Time outs in cribs would definitely not be a punishment for my two! They jump like monkeys and have a grand old time. I started time outs not too long after they turned 1 because I had a biter. I would hold him in my lap with his back to me and not let him play or interact. When it was done I would tell him "we don't bite/hit/etc. After a couple months of doing it this way they figured out what time out actually meant and we started putting them in the corner of their playroom. Now, I say "get to the corner" and they go right there. As pp said, I don't use it for every little infraction, but definitely for biting, throwing toys, continued hitting after I've asked them to stop. I think the key is consistency, explaining to them they are in a time out and why, not walking away, and they will get it. I also agree with the "toy time out". If one particular toy is causing problems I remove that toy for a while.

Also, I've noticed that on days that they seem to be particularly obnoxious, changing the environment by going for a walk or running an errand sometimes does wonders. I think they get bored and have nothing better to do than fight!