One of our parenting books notes that the punishment for toddlers should fit the crime. Draw on walls? Take away their crayons. Spill a cup of orange juice onto the floor? Make them help clean it up.
Uhm… what if the toddler spills stuff because they like cleaning up?
That was a serious question.
Hmm… I guess if it were me, I wouldn’t let him help clean up if that was obviously the cause of the mess.
Buy him a kid-sized mop and let him help with regular maintenance type floor cleaning, but not when he’s spilled something.
if he’s doing it because he likes cleaning up, enjoy it while it lasts (he’ll tire of it sooner or later).
if he’s doing it because he likes pushing your buttons (ref your previous post “Friday”), change your response to something funny (break the cycle) and move on to something else.
Mike: If he’s anything like me, he won’t necessarily tire of cleaning until he has a kid of his own.
send him my way then, lots to do around here!
Maybe you should use another consequence, like you write on the walls with the crayons, the crayons dissapear. I think that he is a bit young for timeouts … but as a last resort, you could make him sit and watch while you clean and he won’t be allowed to help… if that doesn’t help, you could do it in complete silence. For some reason most kids don’t like it when their parents won’t talk…