Q&A: How to Deal With Bad Habits & Annoying Behaviors

Written by dad - One Comment

A reader recently wrote in with the following question:

I have an 19 month old son who won’t stop throwing things. He throws them when he is happy, sad, angry, bored, etc. Any suggestions?

This is a great question, and one which we face on a nearly daily basis. We generally find that the best way of breaking our kids of bad/annoying habits is to ignore what they’re doing. If you can’t entirely ignore it (for safety reasons, for example) then deal with it as dispassionately as possible — don’t let them get a rise out of you!

Admittedly, this is pretty difficult for me — my wife is far better at it than I am, but… It definitely works. If you don’t let it visibly bother you, the offending behavior typically fades away before you know it.

This article is part of our Parenting Q&A series.

Published on February 12th, 2008 - One Comment
Filed under: Parenting Q&A
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Comments (scroll down to add your own):

We had the same “problem” with our 2nd son (of 4, just like our gracious hosts). We then read that boys _tend_ to be interested in moving objects through space. Our 2nd and now our 4th are fanatics about anything that moves. It is their way of exploring the world. We struggle to find outlets like safe rooms or walls for throwing. They particularly like the stairs because the balls come back. My wife still doesn’t understand the need, but works with it as best she can.
As a corollary, I developed a hypothesis that males tend to be better with moving objects and females tend to be better at stationary objects. That’s why only she can find whatever we are looking for, even if it is right in front of our eyes.
Comment by DAO — Mar 16th 2008 @ 10:59 pm