When do they stop asking for something over and over?

[Krisis]

Toby is driving me NUTS. I totally snapped today. It went like this:

Toby: Chocolate?
Me: Nope, not today, maybe another day.
Toby: Chocolate?
Me: Not today sweetheart.
Toby: Chocolate?
Me: Nope.
Toby: Chocolate?
Me: No.
Toby: Chocolate?
Me: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

And this happens approximately 10 million times a day, even when the answer is yes. Like when he wants a drink, he'll ask for one and I'll say "sure let me fill up your cup" and he'll repeat "DRINK DRINK DRINK DRINK DRINK DRINK" 60 times. DH and I are ready to strangle him or duct tape his mouth shut. Yargh.

So when do they grow out of this, and any suggestions for how to handle it?

[kdtmom2be]

DD has moved on to
"I want it anyways!!!"
ok, but we're not having that today.
"Yes I am"
um, no, you're not.
"please mommy please!?"

at least she's learned to ask politely??

[lmk1]

I'm subbing since I have the same question myself. We sometimes give ds the kind of vitamins that look/taste like candy and also some mints with xylitol and he starts "eat eat eat". "Eat what?" (I ask). "Mint". Ok, I give him one vitamin (he can have up to 4 per the bottle). "Mint mint mint mint". "You can have another one after breakfast". "Mint mint mint mint mint mint". I'm not sure it matters how many I give him, he is always asking for another one.
Maybe going deaf after the first request/reply is the right answer? It's hard to remember though.

[puffingirl]

If it's something we're going to give her 1 of (like a piece of chocolate as a treat), we tell her before we give it to her that she has the choice between 1 piece or zero pieces today. If she's going to fuss, it will be zero next time. Thankfully, she is able to think ahead a little and it really does stop her from being a pain about it.

When she's in full-on demand mode about something that's not going to happen, we let her know we understand that she wants that and give her an option (no, you may not have a cookie but if you're hungry I can give you some fruit or cheese) and if she's still going on and on, we tell her that we have other things to do and that when she's ready to join us, please do. We then pretty much ignore her pleas and do something else (often trying to find something she'll want to do). Most of the time this works.

[LiLStar]

oohh my dd does this. its sooo aggravating. Even when I say yes she repeats it over and over. It makes my brain quit functioning I go so batty!

[almadianna]

when they can get it themselves...

[sapphire_chan]

When you give them a nearly full container of salt to pour on the floor? That's what got Lina to give up the raw lentils that give her a horrible rash today.

This is exactly why I don't know how to do vitamins for her. If there was a creamy thing I could be sure she'd eat every day I'd be mashing portions of an adult vitamin into whatever it was. But if we did gummy vitamins or minty vitamins or what have you, I'd need to also get non-medicinal gummies and mints so she could take handfuls of those, eat 3, drop 10 on the floor, and shove the rest into my hand to be put back in the container. (And if the fish oil capsule example held true, she'd then have no interest in the vitamins at all after about 3 weeks of demanding many of them daily.)

[atreyyena]

What I've done with my two is institute a couple of rules........


If you ask me for something more than once that makes me grumpy and only want to say no. (usually this is for special, money costing things like eating out or toys)

Or, for whatever the annoying thing may be, if they repeat themselves constantly I can't 'hear' them. This works for whining, saying please, talking with their mouth full, etc......and then I model what I Want them to do.

For my younger son, if he does that I'll do it back to him.

so with your example:

LO: Chocolate?

Me: Peanut butter

LO:Chocolate?

Me: Pizza

LO: Chocolate?

Meranges

after a while this distracts him and he thinks it's funny. I do the same thing when he says Stop!!! over and over, I'll just say 'go'. Or, oh, hi 'stop stop.'. My son now thinks his three names are Logan, No-no, and stop-stop.

When they get super annoying, I'll bend down to their height, and calmly tell them that the answer is no, and they get to choose to be happy or grumpy. What do they want to do? Then use distraction to move on to something else.

[Bellabaz]

I think it ends when they move out and get a job and money to get their own crap. But I am hoping it ends sooner then that because I am also going nuts! LOL