my three year old argues with me all day, nothing is working! help?

[celena_dagan]

I say son: "go potty break for momma, please pick up your crayons, please dont hit, do you want some pudding" anything i say gets the same response from him NO SHUT YOUR MOUTH! and i am speechless. i have never told my son to shut his mouth.he is not in daycare. i tell him that is ugly and i dont want to hear it again. he "argues" with me about everything. "put on your shorts so we can go to the pool" NO MOMMA I DONT GO TO THE POOL SHUT UP! he gets timeout several times a day and its so frustrating. he will apologize and i will talk to him kiss and hug him then its back to the same formula "dont, no please dont, i said no, please no..." Insult from the baby, timeout, rinse & repeat...HELP!!

 

[PAGirl31]

Sounds like time out is not working. When he say's those things to you try taking a favorite toy and putting it in "toy jail" toy jail is placing it in an area where it is not within reach. You need to explain why he had it taken and also explain that he will get it back when he says he is sorry for talking to you like that. If there are other activity's that he enjoys such as tv time or computer games you could try taking those away as well. Read up on information regarding Oppositional Defiant Disorder also known as ODD.

 

[kookey]

Maybe instead of saying no don't do that try and distract him with something else. If he doesn't want to put on the shorts try to tell him that is ok what would you like to go swimming in. If he keeps saying shut up tell him to say please be quiet. It may just be a phase and sometimes they just do it to get you flustered and see how you react. My son didn't care about time out never did a thing so I tried different things and he grew out of it. Just always try to stay calm and not raise your voice.

 

[letitbe]

Sounds like the terrible 3's if there is such thing.
Just keep consistent and don't lose your cool.
If time out doesn't work then you need to find a different method.