As the mother to two toddler boys who for all intents and purposes are twins, I wanted to do some reading about discipline. I’ve already had several failed attempts with time outs. It’s hard to discipline one child in the time out area when the other child comes over with a sippy cup and toy to play with! While it was cute, it did nothing to promote discipline.

So I started reading on the internet about disciplining multiples. All the articles I read shared some common ideas and suggestions. Here is what I found out:

Babyproof your home. I know from personal experience that two toddlers of the same age are going to work together to cause chaos and confusion. I recently caught one of the boys pushing the other boy up by his rear end to climb higher. Make sure your home is as babyproof and as safe as possible. And since nothing is truly babyproof, never leave multiples unsupervised for any length of time. Find a safe area where you can put your children if you need to run to the bathroom or to the kitchen, but make sure it is babyproof. If your child doesn’t have anything to grab at to break or get in trouble with then you won’t always have to be yelling “no” or “stop that”. Sometimes I think the only area that is truly babyproof is an empty room with no windows or electrical sockets!

Distract, distract, distract. Sometimes it is better to distract your toddler at a young age rather than giving a time out for bad behavior. Children at a young age can understand the meaning of the word no, but have not developed the self control necessary to stop the undesirable behavior. Instead of yelling or giving a time out, distract the child’s attention to a more desirable activity – like reading a book or coloring.

Reward good behavior. It’s easier to reward the good behavior than to punish the bad behavior. When you see your toddler doing something that is good then give them praise with a “good job” or “what a good boy”.

Establish clear rules and guidelines. Always be consistent when setting rules in your house. Don’t enforce a rule one day and ignore an infraction the next.

Don’t yell. When you yell at your toddler “no” or “stop” you are giving negative attention to the child. To a child any type of attention is better than no attention.

Establish a routine. This is what teachers have done for years. If your children know what to expect then they won’t fight it. If you do the same thing the same way every day when putting your children to bed at night they will begin to recognize the pattern and realize that it’s almost time for bed.

I’m going to try and put some of these ideas into practice right away. Many of these ideas are common sense – but when you are trying to parent two, or three, or more toddlers of the same age at the same time you need all the help you can get!