HOW TO TAME A WILD CHILD

Luke is our little wild child... he refuses to listen to 'No', he laughs at me when I smack his hands if he touches something he shouldn't, and reprimanding him just encourages him to do whatever it is he is doing, even longer... I have an almost 1 year old rebel on my hands, and I am at a total loss as to how to control his behaviour. I never would have thought that his behaviour would be this challenging at such a young age.

Just today, Luke learned how to open the DVD player and get the DVD out. I thought I was smart and decided just to turn the DVD player off, because then the open/close button wouldn't work.. well, I was outsmarted when Luke looked at me like I was a joke and proceeded to push the power button, turning the DVD player back on and then again open it and take out the DVD which of course he just threw onto the floor and stood on... so now our DVD cabinet is taped closed until I get something more permanent to keep him out.

Also today, Luke made his first few dents and scratches to our recently painted living room walls. We have a floor lamp, made out of 'sticks', that Luke keeps pushing over... finally after a few scratches across the paint, he pushed just a little too hard, and a couple of the sticks made dents in the wall (USA house have dry wall interiors, not brick)

Another favourite of his is slapping... Luke will repeatedly slap mine, or Jakes face, or even other little children. For quite some time now, when he slaps one of us, we take his hand and show him how to gently stroke our face, rather than slap us... it has become a game for him, he just laughs, and as soon as you let go of his hand, he just slaps you again.

In addition to his rebellion, we have discovered that we need protective gear and danger pay to parent our little mischief maker... 2 nights ago, Jake was putting up a towel rail in our freshly painted bathroom, and he had the hammer next to him on the edge of the bath. Before he even realised what was going on, Luke had sneaked in, grabbed the hammer and dropped it onto Jakes toe... OUCH! The impact cut Jakes toe, and left it feeling well bruised. Then, last night, we were all sitting on the couch together when Luke grabbed my small Canon camera, and proceeded to throw it at me... it caught the back of my hand, resulting in a couple very painful knuckles, some stiff fingers, and a painful hand, which I am still unable to use without pain today.

I marvel at how smart he is, but I pull my hair out at how stubborn and rebellious he is.
He is smart when he chooses to be and picks up quickly how to do the things we don't want him to do, but so far as shown no interest in learning something you wish to teach him. We haven't had much success teaching him fine motor skills, such as stacking his stacking toys. We have also been trying to teach him how to put toys back into their buckets rather than just throwing them out, or how to touch softly, rather than slapping...all with little success so far.Anything you want Luke to do, he will fight you on, and then anything he is doing that you want him to stop, he will fight you on.

I want Jake and I to raise good, respectful children, but how do you do that when your son, not even 1 year old is already so determined to 'rebel' and seems immune to all age appropriate discipline?

We so love our little monkey, and we enjoy him everyday, but parenting has proven to be a real challenge at times with a little boy that has a very strong will and his own idea about how things should be.