What’s the best way to discipline my toddler?

Think of your toddler as a little person who does not understand any of the rules of life. As such, your job, as a parent, is not to scare or punish your child, but rather to teach her those rules.
That will require some form of discipline, however, hitting, or other forms of violent punishment are never the way to do that. They will only teach your child that it’s okay to hurt people, and that violence is an appropriate response to anger or frustration.

Make sure you are consistent. Make the rules, and then keep them that way. If something is not acceptable behaviour today, it’s not acceptable tomorrow either.

Keep your admonishments short. Tell your child ‘no’ firmly, and then add a short explanation. That could be ‘you will get hurt’ or ‘you will make a mess.’ Avoid long monologues – you will lose your child’s interest.

Ignoring bad behaviour, praising and rewarding good behaviour, and using time outs are all positive ways you can use discipline to teach your toddler the rules of the world. Just don’t expect it to work overnight. It can take weeks, months or years for your toddler to understand why things are the way they are.