What to do about a 2 year old sticking out her tongue?

[Serena]

I would not be punishing the little one for sticking out her tongue. Personally, we do it all the time here. I have one rule though, you are not allowed to stick your tongue out in anger or being "bad".
As for the 13 yo, a gentle, sort of in passing, comment. "Wow, I thought you were too grown up to let her get to you over something as silly as that."

I have to add, we don't do it around grandparents or anywhere "public", anywhere were people would disapprove. It's for at home being silly.

 

[NDAMomX2]

I always stuck my tongue back at my kids.

Sorry OP I do not have any advice other than this is probably a phase. I geuss just wait for this phase to pass?

ETA: The soap method works. The boy my DD babysits for learned some "colorfull" vocabulary. One day he was using his new vocab every second he got and the next day, nothing! The boy said his mom made him wash those words out of his mouth.

 

[Keli]

If you want the behavior to stop, punish her for it. Punish her EVERY TIME she does it. Time out, spanking, whatever YOU deem appropriate for a 2-year old's punishment. The punishment must be something she doesn't like, and she must know that when she sticks out her tounge, the punishment will follow swiftly and certainly.

If this is really a habit, she'll probably need to be punished twice to show her that you're serious, then she'll test you in a week or so to see if you're going to follow through.

If you allow her to "rationalize" about pretending to be a lizard (even though that IS funny), prepare for trouble ahead.

Very good advice IMHO and applicable to much more than something as small as a child sticking his/her tongue out at others.

And I will say that I do think this behavior should be stopped in a child rather than ignored. It's not a big deal when a two yr old sticks their tongue out at their older sister IMHO but it is disrespectful when they do it to their preschool teacher, or pastor, or a police officer, or the elderly neighbor next door, etc.

 

[emily1982]

Why don't at the start of each day get her to put 5 marbels in a jar, everytime she does it she looses a marbel, but if she does something positive, like being kind, give her a marbel. Then at the end of the day if she has non left then she gets no dessert or no reward. At the school i work at, we tend to give them blank white stickers and write exactly on the sticker they've done like 'I helped to tidy up the blocks', 'i was very kind', something very specific. If stickers don't work give her something you know she would really want.

Thing is though if your going to punish her you have to do it EVERY time and it has to be the same sort of punishment so she can relate it. Personally i don't agree though on spanking on this one, i mean your telling her not to stick her tongue out and be polite.

 

[KadysMom]

well shes 2.. and the other is 13... 13 is at the age of reason the 2yr is not anywhere close to age of reason i would ingnore the 2 when they do it and find out why 13 is "really" bothered by the 2 yr old.. the more you get involed the bigger the little problem grows..
as for soap in the mouth of a 2 yr old shame on that person.
dont sweat the small stuff

Shame on nothing! One swipe of a bar of soap, and she never did that again. No biting nothing.... I would rather that than pepper or something else. (I HATE PEPPER!!!)

 

[robinb]

get the scissors and threaten to cut it off! They believe everything at that age!

Yikes ! I would never do that. First of all, I would never want my DD to think that I could be capable of doing something horrible like cutting off her tongue. Secondly, I don't make threats that I am not prepared to keep. Soap, pepper, Tabasco sauce ... knock yourself out OP. But please don't threaten to mutilate your child.

 

[hpygrll]

Another vote for the soap - also works for talking back. My boys prefer BBW's Vanilla Sugar - if we're really ticked we use Juniper Breeze

Jenny

 

[bevtoy]

Shame on nothing! One swipe of a bar of soap, and she never did that again. No biting nothing.... I would rather that than pepper or something else. (I HATE PEPPER!!!)

On a more somber note we had a small child die here because a parent poured pepper on the child's tongue and her tongue got swollen and she choked to death.

Just the threat of soap works here.

 

[SwedishMeatball]

The 13 year old should get a frozen pole and tell the 2 year old to stick her tongue out on it.

 

[sweet angel]

My aunt had this problem years ago with her son. She put a dot of tabasco sauce on his tounge and it quickly solved the problem. If he got fresh after that, all she had to do was grab the bottle of sauce and he would stop.

I stuck my tongue out at my mom ONCE -- and got a tongue-full of tabasco -- not just a dot.

 

[Tiffer]

I am not the nicest mother out there, but when my DD started that phase, i took her in the bathroom and told her to stick her tongue out. Then i wiped a bar of soap on it.... Not and issue any more!!!

This is what I was thinking. Or maybe a little pepper.

 

[Tiffer]

Shame on nothing! One swipe of a bar of soap, and she never did that again. No biting nothing.... I would rather that than pepper or something else. (I HATE PEPPER!!!)

Yikes ! I would never do that. First of all, I would never want my DD to think that I could be capable of doing something horrible like cutting off her tongue. Secondly, I don't make threats that I am not prepared to keep. Soap, pepper, Tabasco sauce ... knock yourself out OP. But please don't threaten to mutilate your child.

So agree with both!

You should never threaten something you are not prepared to back up.

On a more somber note we had a small child die here because a parent poured pepper on the child's tongue and her tongue got swollen and she choked to death.

Just the threat of soap works here.

I wasn't suggesting a canister of pepper, a dab should do. Or soap, or whatecer else she deems "yucky".

 

[mickeyboat]

I wouldn't ever use soap - but my kids lose their bike for a day if I hear inappropriate language. I have only had to take it away from one child for one day all summer so far.

 

[ocd4disney]

I used soap for colorful language and for sticking out your tongue. One word of caution though......some soap can be harmful. I saw a special on the news about kids having allergic reactions and sometimes dying from soap. I put a small dab of baby soap on a wash cloth and foamed it up, then put it in my kids' mouth. It didn't take long for it to work....tongues stayed where they belonged and the language was no longer so colorful.

 

[ohpoohmetoo]

My aunt had this problem years ago with her son. She put a dot of tabasco sauce on his tounge and it quickly solved the problem. If he got fresh after that, all she had to do was grab the bottle of sauce and he would stop.

May not be nice, but this is what I would do if explaing did not work.
I feel for you regarding the bickering between sisters. Mine are 9 and 14 and there is non-stop squabbling over things that are rarely important. I hate being a ref!
If you find any way to end the fighting let me know.

Happy Parenting or something like that.

Liz

 

[iloveboardwalk]

May not be nice, but this is what I would do if explaing did not work.
I feel for you regarding the bickering between sisters. Mine are 9 and 14 and there is non-stop squabbling over things that are rarely important. I hate being a ref!
If you find any way to end the fighting let me know.

Happy Parenting or something like that.

Liz

Don't be the ref. When my kids argue, I send them to another room where they can argue, with the door closed. I refuse to be drawn into such life altering debates as who owns more red lego blocks. If they absolutely insist I get involved, I just tell them I'm going to throw away all of <whatever object> unless they work it out themselves. Goodwill has quite a few of my kid's toys because I absolutely refuse to be drawn into their bickering. They don't argue much anymore, at least not where I can hear them and they never ask me to ref anymore.

 

[daisax]

I'd tell the 13 year old (in front of the 2 year old) "I know it's annoying, but she's a BABY. BABIES do that. When she's older and more grownup she'll stop doing such a BABY thing, but for now, I think it's just WONDERFUL!"

And scoop that BABY up and smother her with embarrassing Mom smooches every time she does it.

In other words, the opposite of the kind of attention she wants.

Heck, you can even enlist the 13 year old to join you.

 

[daisyduck123]

And I will say that I do think this behavior should be stopped in a child rather than ignored.

That's what I was going to say.
This behavior should not be allowed or encouraged.

Any child in my classroom that does this gets to spend 5 minutes of his/her recess sitting on the curb at our playground.

 

[Aidensmom]

You're 2 year old is probably doing it because it is actually giving her "control" over the thirteen year old. If the 13 year old stops giving her control, it will be easier to deal with the root of the problem. As long as there is some reward in it for the 2 year old, which is what the 13 year old is giving her, you are going to just keep going in circles with this. I understand teenagers can be dramatic, but they also have better reasoning and self-control capabilities than two year olds.

If they were my children, the 13 year old would be told to ignore the 2 year old, and would have some sort of privelege taken away when she didn't. I would then work with the 2 year old on being respectful. My child gets privileges taken away (watching a movie, playing outside, etc for a day) if he is disrespectful in any way (talking back, sticking out tongue in anger, being defiant). We do, however, allow sticking out a tongue when it is playful. My son is a little older though and is able to recognize the difference.

 

[iloveboardwalk]

Regarding the tongue thing, my son did it for a few weeks at that age. I totally ignored him, no positive or negative attention.

As for the 13 year old, if she can't control her emotions, I would take away privileges. I would not accept that kind of screaming behavior from my teen towards my toddler for perfectly normal toddler behavior.