Whining children?

Question

My 6 year old little girl has recently become very whiney. I am at wits end. How do I stop this?

I have tried time-outs, ignoring her, talking to her, i feel like i have tried everything. She is 6 and has just recently started this.

Answer 1

I too have a 6 year old who is going through the same thing. I love him to pieces, but it has been a hard year. The only method I have found is reasoning...then pure hard love. First I say Son, I understand that you are upset, but I am not going to listen to you whine. When you get finished...we can talk... not before. Then I put him in his room. A few mins. later he comes back, and then we talk about the issue. Then we can try to fix it or at least talk through it. I can't handle hearing whining....so this has helped my stress level. Good luck

Answer 2

I tell my kids I can't hear that tone of voice. I see their lips moving, but I can't hear what they are saying. If they want me to understand, they have to lower their voice to one I can hear. Otherwise I ignore the voice, on the basis that I can't hear it (selective deafness works for parents, too). Since I've said I would listen when they choose a different voice, the ball is back in their court. I'm not refusing to listen, after all. After a few times, the whiney voice disappears. It's just they discover that tone of voice is irritating to us adults, and gets attention. So the trick is to give the attention, but not the way they want. After a little while with this treatment, mine give up the whine for the most part. On the rare occasion my 9 year old whines, I've been known to whine the answer back, and ask if they find that a pleasant voice to hear. If you can manage a touch of humor with the whine back, it helps diffuse the situation from getting worse. I have 6 kids, the youngest is 6years old- and it has worked with every one of them.

Answer 3

hard love has done wonders to kids. Ignoring the child to some extent (not neglegence), time-outs and best of all, other activites. If you keep a kid busy with mentally stimulating activities, they'll have little time to worry about whining for other things. Coloring, playing dressup (since she's a little girl), reading with her and letting her help you clean stuff making it look like fun worked really well with my younger sister back when she was that young. Let her know that whining and crying won't get her anything, but being nice and asking will get her things.

Answer 4

You have to be consistent with whichever one method you use - just use one method - and it will take over two to three weeks to start working. Whatever you do - do not let her know that her whining is driving you crazy - If you let her know that - she has you over a barrel so to speak - She is doing it on purpose to get a reaction out of you (even if it is a negative reaction) She just wants attention. So ignoring the whining (you can tell her I will not answer you until you stop whining)and rewarding the good behavior is the key. We forget to reward (even just praise is a reward) for a behavior that should be but we always comment on negative behaviors. So try to be aware of her good behavior and comment on it to reinforce it.
I used to tell my son that he could not have something or I would not talk to him until he stopped whining. Then when he stopped - I said thank you - Now I can talk to you etc...

Answer 5

Let's see now you've tried THREE methods and gave up...You should have stuck with the FIRST method or at least ONE method. Pick one and stick to it. Don't be changing patters again and again. All you are doing is confusing the child and compounding the problem. I suggest the ignore method. It's not going to stop overnight and since you've already made it worse it is going to take even more time...but you have to be CONSISTENT.

Answer 6

I have two (mostly) grown sons. I have no tollerance for whining. I would simply say "I will listen to you when you talk in a normal tone of voice" and I would walk away. I put up with other faults, but never whining - it's like fingernails on a chalk board to me!

Answer 7

i buy the everything toddler book thats the name and he has alot of advice for whining children i had the same problem with my kid and time out work perfectly when you sit her down tell that you do it because she is whining a lot and dont use the word dont a lot or no because the just tend to ignore it good luck

Answer 8

i agree with "sam21462" whining back will usually stop that when they realise they dont like it either.
my husband has done that with his little sister and she has learned well that whining will not get her way around him. we dont have kids of our own yet but so far his method has worked out perfectly

Answer 9

She may not be feeling well. A Cold, some thing you may not notice. Sometimes we all don't feel well but not enough to complain. Also, school just started so whats going on there?

Answer 10

well all i can say is check and see if your preganant ;if not alright she can be just going threw a phase ;..just sit down and make you and her time see what she wants to do for a day maybe she just wants a little more attention then usual .they do this sometime. just dont loose your cool she'll be done with this before you know it.