Disciplining 6-12 Months

Written By: Destiny V.

There comes a time in your child's life, when you finally have to start saying no.

It starts off so cute, they begin to crawl and pull up on things. They are loving life and wanting to experience everything. However, it isn't always safe or correct for them to be experiencing certain things.

I remember, right around 6 months old, my daughter was already crawling and she kept crawling over to the cords connected to my husband's computer and pulling on them. I told her no about 10 times and she would look at me, smile/laugh and turn and pull them again. She thought it was a game. My husband's computer was dangerously close to falling, so I went over to her, pointed at it, said "No-No, don't touch" and I swatted her hand. She once again just laughed and pulled on the cord again. My resolve was a little stronger this time and I repeated the no-no don't touch routine, and swatted her hand a little harder. This time, she looked at me with her blue eyes, filling with tears, stuck out her bottom lip and screamed bloody murder.

That was hard for me. I knew that she didn't really know what she was doing, but the bottom line was she needed to begin to learn that when mommy says no, you obey or there is a consequence. If she would have pulled the computer down it could have fallen on her and really injured her, even in the best case scenario it would have broken her dad's $3000 computer.

It only took a few times of follow through spanking till she started to understand that no, means no- don't you do that.

By 9 months, the swatting the hand thing no longer worked as she had gotten too tough, so I now resorted to swatting her leg. That gets her attention.

The biggest thing that I have learned from my mom and sister is that you only spank for rebellion. You don't spank her thinking she should have known better. You spank her when you tell her no, and she looks at you, understanding in her eyes, and does it anyways. That is rebellion and I personally feel needs to be dealt with immediately.

Never spank out of frustration or anger. Never spank when they do something accidentally, like spilling something or knocking something over. Basically, only spank rebellion.

Well that's my story at least. My daughter is extremely well behaved and knows her boundaries. Not that she doesn't try to test her limits on a daily basis, but she responds well and knows that I love her more than life.

I know it sounds trite, but I discipline her because I love her.