Reply to I just bagged up all of DS' toys...and I'm giving them away

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Reply to "I just bagged up all of DS' toys...and I'm giving them away"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Take a deep breath. He's 4, and while he seems big to you, he's actually still very young. I have been frustrated with my kids too, but if you write them off as bad this young, you'll never get them to behave.

Don't throw away the toys. Well, maybe some :) here are some ideas:

Have him earn back the ones he lost with good behavior.  Make it really easy for him to get back so the positive reinforcement has him wanting to behave better.

Cut out screen time (it makes my son a monster).

Make sure he gets lots of outside time (even when it's cold)

Make sure he's getting a good night's sleep. Put him to bed even earlier than you think he should go. Adjust work schedules if you have to. Sleep is huge.

Make sure he's eating enough protein. The American kid diet is packed with carbs and sugar and they can have sugar crashes just like adults.

Give him a lot of adult one on one time. No phone in hand, face to face playing a game, reading books, hiking.

Be consistent with discipline.

Get help--from your kids teachers, from your pediatrician, from books, podcasts, social workers or psychologists. Don't write him off this young.

[/quote]

I think this is all spot on.  The protein thing is HUGE with my kids - my mother in law used to say the same thing about her own kids when they were little, and I discounted it.  She was 100% right.

Early bedtime is so critical too.  At 4, they probably still (developmentally) need a nap- but of course few take one- so you have to make up for that with early bedtime.

Supernanny has some good strategies- one of which is a marble jar or some other vessel in which the kid tries to collect tokens with good behavior.  Marbles go in for good and come out for bad- but with zero emotion shown for the bad.  (the idea is to earn a "big" reward- the kind of thing that's big to a 4 YO, like maybe getting to watch a movie or something- whatever works for your kid)

Good luck![/quote]

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