[BusyBeeMom]

Please help me get my 19 month old DD to stop throwing things. She LOVES to climb up, and chuck papers/books/whatever off counters and tables. My mother, who babysits, is at her wit's end. I know about diverting and redirecting, but this is what DD does when my mom is not paying attention to her, to get attention (like if my mom has to do something else for a minute).

Having my mom clear all clutter is not an option - she's reduced it to as minimal as it's going to get.

Please off any ideas you've got as to how to stop an undesirable behavior!!

Thank you very much!

 

[MonikitaUT]

Ughh! I don't have much that is useful to add, whereas you know all about redirecting.. (offer her a squishy ball to throw, etc.) It sounds like your very smart child has found out what works to get the attention she wants. The only thing that might work is trying new creative things to entertain her when your mom needs to get stuff done. A new toy only brought out at that time, guided messy play, etc.

Good luck to you and your mom!

 

[illinoismommy]

Try this....

Give her attention when she's doing stuff you like, like dancing.

When she throws something, pretend not to see, completely ignore it, or just shake head and give very little attention.

So long as she gets more attention by doing it she will continue... toddlers will take negative attention over being ignored. Its annoying but true!!

My toddler has begun "screaming" at this extremely high pitch to get my attention. I've been ignoring the screaming for half a week now unless he uses words or gestures instead... the screaming is decreasing.

 

[pixielinds]

i've exhausted all my options with this too, and he still does it

 

[Al Dente]

I'm sure this isn't as positive as it could be, or making value judgements or something (I'm LOL at myself for tiptoeing around this, only at MDC would I feel compelled to!) but I have had lots of success saying "nice people don't throw things. I understand that you want my attention, but you cannot throw things in my house". For some reason, that works for ds (but he's older than your dd...I think it started working around 22 mos-ish).

 

[AugustineM]

I would do what a PP said -- totally ignore the behavior. If she's doing it to get attention, then not giving her the attention has the potential to stop the behavior. My son started throwing things at about that age and I never said anything about it unless he was throwing things *at* someone and it had the potential to hurt them. Or if he was going to throw a glass jar or something like that.

Pick your battles, you know? It's pretty normal behavior, and if it isn't hurtful or totally destructive, I'd ignore it...

 

[flitters]

One thing we do to work on not throwing is this: After explaining (with eye-contact!) to ds why throwing is dangerous (or whatever words are appropriate for the situation), we ask him to please hand the object to whomever it was intended, or to place it down carefully. We don't push on this, but he almost always wants to do it again without the throw, and we end on a good note.