Hit Me With Your Best Shot

My little Captain America & his punching bag

Hitting, biting, kicking, punching, spitting, licking.  All things that my children have done to each other on an occasional basis.  We have not dealt with chronic biters, which I am grateful for.  We had not dealt with any of these things on a wide scale until we had our beautiful, intense third born child.

This boy was born ready.  He arrived after we had been at the hospital for just under 1 hour.  My previous labors has put me in the hospital for at least 12 hours of my labor.  He came so quickly that one nurse had my doctor on the phone and the other nurse called down for the on-duty ER doctor to please come up.

There are so many things that I have come to learn through this child.  He will try something just to see what happens, or to simply see if he can do it.  Among other places I have found him (under the age of 4) on top of the van, on the ledge of the deck, and on a friend's roof (a low hanging roof over a deck).  I realized that none of these things had I specifically told him "not" to do.  He is a smart kid and will keep thinking of things to try that I will not have anticipated.  So, for the past two years I have been drilling into his brain that he needs to make "safe choices."  We talk OFTEN about what this means.  We talk about how it makes mom and dad feel when he does NOT make a safe choice.  And we also compliment him whenever we can we we notice he DID make a safe choice.

Hitting has been the single other biggest struggle so far with this child.  He has the need to constantly move and constantly hit things - most of all his brother.  So after incessant reminders, time-outs, and talks about being gentle my mom and I were talking one day and came up with the idea of a punching bag.  After doing some research and checking out Craig's List, we found an awesome bag.  It does take up space in our house, however it has been such an amazing fit for the needs of my child, I would gladly do it again.  We have all enjoyed using it - whether it be to work out (me), get out some anger (my 6 year old), or just have fun trying it (everybody else).

Do you deal with any active children in your home?
How do you encourage them to make "safe choices?"
Would you ever consider something like the punching bag to help fill a need of your child (something to bite for a biter, something to spit on for a spitter)?