Dealing with a misbehaving toddler/pre-schooler is one of those things that despite everyone claiming they have the answer to, very little actually works.
The deeper I get into Stoicism, the more I want to make sure that I am raising my son the right way.
Many years ago, I heard about an acronym that you should think of when your little one misbehaves.
H.A.L.T.
This stood for Hungry, Anxious, Lonely, Tired.
I have that that 99.9% of the time, his misbehaviour in some way related to one of the above.
While that was easy to understand, responding to the misbehaviour required a different way of thinking.
Yelling at him was not going to be an option.
So, what else was there to do?
While I knew the Stoic way was to do nothing, I needed to find something that would get him to change the behaviour.
I knew that telling stories was how we sell things to adults.
Though how do we do it with kids?
Then, I came across a couple of articles that talked about how Inuit parents teach their kids not to misbehave. In particular, it was dealing with anger.
Their way was to not respond to anything that was done.
Once the child has calmed down, to use story telling to get them to change their behaviour.
If you are interested in this approach, here are two articles I recommend that you read.
