My 4.5 year old daughter has started hitting herself when I'm mad at her?

Question

My daughter is an only child, is very bright and she has always argued with me, but has recently disregarded specific instructions, in fact has done just the opposite. Then when I get upset with her, she starts smacking herself, which breaks my heart, I am not into hitting and hate to see her do this to herself. I don't over react, I just ask her to stop hitting herself, and tell her its unnecessary.

Answer 1

Ignore her, she's doing it for attention. Just walk away and don't say anything about it.

Answer 2

My nephew did this for a few months. He was very young...right before his second birthday. When he was reprimanded, he would hit himself in the face. It made us all feel so bad and we couldn't understand what would make him do that. Nobody would ever hit him. The pediatrician told us to completely ignore the behavior... not to even look at him when he would do that, because apparently he was looking for a reaction of "consoling" so that we would no longer be mad. It was a rough few weeks of trying to ignore the behavior and then he eventually stopped.

Answer 3

Hummm...then I would have to say that she is hitting to get your attention. Even if it is you saying "don't hit yourself"...keyword being "don't". Kids that age love to do what you tell them to "don't" do.

You can try ignoring the hitting to see if that stops her. And if that doesn't work...then tell her she will get "time out" or "punished" for hitting herself because "we don't hit...not even ourselves".

A curious question is where did she learn to hit if you don't spank her? Does she get hit at school? By friends, playmates? Another relative? It might be worth investigating...her hitting herself might be the result of another problem altogether...

Answer 4

If you're daughter is one of those who really likes attention, then just ignore because she just wants sympathy from you. However, if you know she is not self-centered or arrogant, tell her it's wrong for her to hit herself and she can hurt herself.

Answer 5

I would send her to her room for inappropriate behavior. I would not comment on the hitting. She is trying to get your attention and punish YOU for your behavior. Next time she does it just tell her to spend 5 minutes in her room until she can better control her self. Once she can no longer get a rise out of you it will get boring (and she will go on to something else to get a rise out of you)

Good luck.

Answer 6

i think ur daughter just wants attention, it seems like shes saying:
if u be mean 2 me I'll hit myself, so then u'll stop being mad at me.
I believe that when a child is bad he/she should be punished.
i would try making her sit in time out, making her sit on her hands every time she does that, maybe she'll stop after getting the message.

Answer 7

hi! you assert that your daughter would not moist her pants in college: this shows that she has administration over her bladder. She merely chooses to no longer exercising this administration whilst she's with you, because of the fact it provides her potential over you.

Answer 8

ask her who teaches her to hit..and get to her level and explain to her that hitting isnt good. That she'll go to timeout for that. My daughter is starting to learn things from other kids, and when i find her doing it, i explain it to her what's right and wrong and give her a chance to make it right.

Answer 9

I tell my son, "Noone is allowed to hurt my baby, not even my baby."

Then I hold him and rock him. If he's in trouble, I hold his hands down at his sides until he knows I won't let him hurt himself.

Answer 10

i do that to it's so i don't yell out get in more trouble, it releases stress nothng you can really do