I want to start off by saying that the "terrible twos" take effect on each child different and i think almost each child goes through something...My oldest son Cam who is now 5 at the age of 3 he when he wouldnt get his way he would drop to the floor and hit his head on the ground over and over again
. Now he is very mellow and disaplined...i do use the 1 2 3 thing where i start counting and by the time i get to 2 he runs up to me apologizing and giving me a kiss with "sorry, mommy i promise i never, never do it again" lol...well that usually lasts for about 5 minutes .. but at least he tries
my little one...yikes...although he never hit his head up against the wall or the floor, he is very very stubborn (some say like his mom hee hee) and when i try the 123 thing he usually ends up counting with me with a smirk on his face as i know he knows hes doing wrong, it is soooo hard for me not to laugh when he does this...so the next step for me is to send him to his room with no tv (as i try soooo hard not to spank them) after a few moments i hear him calling my name (because hes not allowed out of the room until i tell him otherwise) saying...."mom" and ill say yes avery and he says "mom, i be good" lol and then i make him come out and apologize (which is usually to his brother for hitting him) (yes, i know the little one is the bully in the family and cam is not allowed to hit him back)
I do think each child is different and you have to adapt to his or her charactaristic and handle the situation that works best for him or her (as my two are like night and day) so i have to take different disaplinary actions for each
The main thing in our house is to make sure they know the consequences if they misbehave or act up...what ever it is that you "threaten" them with, make sure you follow through on that!!!!
ok...enough rambling on from me