How do you react when your toddler hits you?

Oooo I feel this! I have been given advice to either try and catch him before he does it and say no thank you! We don’t hit people, and ask if he’d rather do something else and if he says no then say well mummy/daddy whoever can’t play with you right now as we need to make sure we’re safe, tbh we both feel like proper hippys but I was told that the last word shouldn’t be no, so no thank you works best for us, and he does sort of hate it when we say we can’t play right now so he sits in a mood for like maybe a minute then gives us a hug and kiss and passes us a toy to play with! But it’s an effin struggle xx

I totally get this as my toddler does this and also used to bite but we’ve turned a corner now (hopefully).

I used to get mad as a quick reaction as I couldn’t help it but now if he does it, I don’t react and just look at him with a stern face until he has calmed down and just say ‘we don’t hit/kick/bite’ etc and he gets it and gives me a cuddle.

We also got a book on it (children’s book) and read it to him so he understands what we do and don’t bite/hit e.g. “we bite apples and not arms”. there’s loads on Amazon

It is hard to stay calm but over time I’ve managed it much better and realised that if you can then it really helps diffuse the situation

Stay calm
Get on there level
Hold there arms to there side and sit them down
Say “we do not hit mummy”
Step away
Repeat until they stop hitting and ask if they need a hug.

Or pick them up and just cuddle them till there calm but you’ll still get hit till them

I stay calm, hold his hands and tell him "we don't hit people, it's not nice". He only hits through excitement, never anger so I ask him to sit down if he's starting to hit and calm down. Once he's calm, he can get back up. It works miracles. Nursery taught me that trick