Strong Willed 3 yo.

amother

Green

Tue, Oct 20 2015, 10:38 am

My 3 yo DS has figured out how to be defiant. When I tell him to do something (or not to), he will say no or ignore me. I take his hand to start doing it with him and he pulls his weight in the other direction. Next is time out. I put him in, he screams and I give him a few minutes until I let him go.
At a quieter time we discuss how he is going to be a listening boy, he apologizes and we move on.
HOWEVER, this has been happening multiple times a day! He is trying to test me and I hate to be the mean mother. He refused to get dressed this morning and I had to hold him tight in order to get everything on. My older child cleaned all the toys this morning because he refused to and threw them everywhere.I sent him to school crying today, because he wanted to bring toys and I didn't let. This was all this morning.

The reason I feel that I need to be strong is that I was more lax with my older one, and it took years to correct.

Any advice?