I babysit a 21 month old and his 4 year old brother. During the day, until 4pm, it's just the baby, but it's harder to get them to listen to me when they're both around each other. I usually fix that problem by separating them when they're misbehaving together, but when it's just me and the baby, he throws fits like I've never seen before. When I got here this morning, his brother was still home because he had missed his bus and his mom was taking him to school. So the little one got upset because he wanted to leave. So, he started screaming and crying and ran into the kitchen and started hitting the cabinets. So, I picked him up and tried to console him. He calmed down after a minute, but when I put him down he went into the kitchen and I asked him if he wanted a juice. He then proceeded to thrust his high chair into the pantry, nearly knocking everything off the shelves so I moved him away from the pantry while he kicked me and tried to squirm around to hit me in the face and pull my hair... So, I set him down on the couch and he jumped up, grabbed the remote and started beating on the tv with it and actually cracked the remote, thank God he didn't do any damage to the tv, it's a $2,000 tv. So, I picked him up, while he again started pulling my hair and kicking me in the stomach and I put him in his brother's bed(his crib fell apart from him throwing these fits), and closed the door. He started screaming and throwing things and banging on and kicking the door, This is still going on right now and he's been in there for 25 minutes. I've never had a 21 month old act like this, I've never seen any child act like this, unless they were maybe at least 4 years old and his brother isn't even as bad as him.
What do I do? His mother told me she trusts me enough to punish him how I see fit, she's told me I could pop him on the leg and if he gets out of control(like the way he's acting now) to use the belt, but I don't feel comfortable beating a child, especially one that's not mine. What can I do to soothe the beast inside this little boy? He can be so sweet when he wants to be, but most of the time, he looks at me like he wants to stab me, and I've never seen him act towards his mom with any respect and rarely see him happy around her... plus, his father is in the navy and will be gone until mid-July, but he's acted this way before his father left. Please help! I pulled a muscle in my back last week so I can't fight him to calm down all of the time. I need some new solutions!!!
What do I do? His mother told me she trusts me enough to punish him how I see fit, she's told me I could pop him on the leg and if he gets out of control(like the way he's acting now) to use the belt, but I don't feel comfortable beating a child, especially one that's not mine. What can I do to soothe the beast inside this little boy? He can be so sweet when he wants to be, but most of the time, he looks at me like he wants to stab me, and I've never seen him act towards his mom with any respect and rarely see him happy around her... plus, his father is in the navy and will be gone until mid-July, but he's acted this way before his father left. Please help! I pulled a muscle in my back last week so I can't fight him to calm down all of the time. I need some new solutions!!!