Toddler hitting

Yes they do it when frustrated, tired, etc because they don't have the tools yet to express what they need. This action is the child's best attempt to get a need met. When my my son used to do it, I would take his hand in mine and gently rub my shoulder or upper chest area with it and said if you need something just rub mommy or daddy gently. I would tell him every single time. I did it when he hit or bit us to get an need met and within a few weeks he had it down. Then he started rubbing us and when he did I would immediately respond to him with acknowledgement and said oh you need something buddy? are you hungry? Etc? I'd make an empathy guess as to what I thought he needed based on our usual schedule and the time of day. It worked very well.

That's meltdown and it's coming from his emotion so u gotta get in touch with it u can't discipline someone if u can't connect u have to connect .... know why his mad of frustrated acknowledge and then give him options

this is great thank you. I’ve actually tried taking her hand to stroke my face to show her “kind hands” but wasn’t sure she understood. You’ve encouraged me to keep at it 😊

Yes, keep at it! They are absorbing it. I've learned that whenever posible it is good to tell them what we DO expect, rather then what we DON'T want them to do. They respond much better to that. In essence when you make a statement with any "don't" included, keep in mind they generally will not hear the don't lol. So if you say don't hit or bite mommy, they will hear hit mommy bite mommy lol. And if I give a reaction of any kind at all, he will do the thing that inspired the reaction. So when I've made a sad face and said that hurt mommy, he would literally do that thing again. All this is very normal

I'm just graduating from a gentle/peaceful Parent Coach training with Jai Institute for Parenting. Feel free to message me with any other questions, etc, and I'm happy to chat. 💞🙏🏼