My daughter is 2-years old, with what seems a good development overall. We also have a 7-month old son. My wife takes care of them at home most of the time, and they also see their cousin (also 2-years old) one day a week, and my own mother 2-3 times a week.
We are reading a lot about child development and it seems quite important to give the kids some discipline so they have some sort of frame to build upon.
We try to put ourselves in the middle about discipline, and her granny is very cool and patient with her grandaughter.
The question we keep asking ourselves at the moment is when is discipline useful, when is it too much ? And how is this going to change in the next years, i.e. what should we enforce when she is 3 or 4 ?
Some examples of situations where we wonder if insisting to have her obey is a good idea :
- At every meal, she takes off her slippers (which she never takes off herself at another time) and puts her feet on the table
- Since 3 weeks, she does not want anymore that I give her bath, she keeps asking (crying aloud) during 30 minutes for her mother if I take her to the bathroom
- Sometimes, randomly, she stops to obey when asked to go to the bathroom to change her diaper, or to climb up the stairs with us, or to tidy her toys, or any simple activity she used to do willingly the past months. Instead she runs away from us in the house
- she would roll on the floor and cry when she is forbidden to go to a game such as bouncing castle
- she wants to jump on beds
- she sometimes completely refuses to use her potty (baby toilets, I miss the word in english)
- when my wife is on the phone, she climbs on the table which is quite dangerous! (no really doubts on this one)
On the other hand, here are some situations in which we found her well educated :
- she usually repeats some sort of polite sentence when asking for something, and repeats thank you, hello, good bye and so on
- she keeps our hand outside the house
- she usually agrees to tidy her room and her toys
- she gives some toys to the little brother and gives some kisses to say hello and good night
- she sleeps well and very rarely disturbs us during the night or her nap
Note : I have seen this good one about how to enforce discipline. My question is really about which subjects are suitable to enforce at the ages of 2,3,4 ?