Reply to What am I doing wrong? So frustrated with toddler and cats

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Sounds like he s a budding sociopath. 
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That escalated quickly.  :roll:

OP, my oldest, now 6, went through a similar phase and is now a perfectly lovely cat companion, so there's hope! The key for us was calm, consistent consequences. Whatever you do, don't engage with a ton of emotion. It's obviously upsetting to see your kid acting like a jerk to the cat, but giving a high-impact response will only tell him that this is a good way to get your attention.

"We are gentle with our cats." and then a redirect for lesser offenses (pushing the cat off the sofa/out of the way).  "We only use gentle hands with our pets. Seems like that's difficult for you right now. Take a time-out for ___ minutes and then we'll talk about it."  Imagine your demeanor as being as dull and emotionless as you might be if your boss were telling that same damn fishing story for the twelfth time.  "Oh.  Really.  Hmm.  Wow."  :wink:  Separate the cats as needed to keep them safe.

If this is happening multiple times a day, maybe he needs better supervision?[/quote]

OP here. Thank you this is very helpful. Thanks to all the other helpful posts as well. Lately, I'm so irritated by this behavior that I do react rather...largely. I'm going to try to tone down my reactions to see if that helps. He's supervised but also sometimes unpredictable. Because I want to praise him for being good with the cats, I don't intervene every time he goes near them, because usually he treats them well. And I do often give him an I've-got-my-eye-on-you warning, with mixed results.

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