cylentka wrote in post #3620621
The problem with Allie right now is that she honestly can't seem to stop arguing. She'll start to argue with me and I'll stop her and tell her she's not permitted to argue, then she'll argue about arguing. So I tell her again she's arguing with me and to just be quiet. She gets more frustrated and belligerent which results in a time out. We seem to spend all evening, every evening going through this routine. So I'm thinking I need to try something else. I'd rather not resort to spanking, so I'll give the writing papers trick a try. I'm sure there will be many tears at first but maybe making her write down that she is doing something wrong and needs to stop will help get it through her head.
Thanks to everyone for their input. I'm at wits end here and she's only 6.
It's not easy raising kids. It's all OJT. Flying by the seat of the pants. If you have two kids, they need to be handled and brought up differently. With our kids, which may, or may not work with other's kids, we just made it obvious that 1. We were a united front, Mom wasn't going to override Dad, and vice versa. 2. We were going to win. Period. I would just escalate the situation until that was the case. Never in anger, never beyond the "crime".
I remember once with my son, who loved to argue, had a chip on his shoulder. He started to argue with me. Mind you, I never discouraged discussion. I wanted them to talk to me, to hash things out, work out the dilemma... rationally and respectfully. I told him, "One warning, that's all you get." More argument. "That's a paper." This resulted in a new burst of wrath. "Two papers." Indignation and further words. "Three papers." This went on until he had seven papers to write. Then he caught on and shut up. I just sat there and added work until he realized that 1. It wasn't going to get him anywhere talking to me that way, 2. there were serious consequences to his actions, 3. It wasn't going to get any easier and 4. I was going to win because I was Dad. 
