My three year old hits, grabs my hair, or tries to scratch my faces when he gets mad at me. Is this normal?

This behavior is not acceptable.You need some discipline under the roof.First ime in the morning he hits or pulls hair you put him on a time out chair.Make him sit there,for 2 minutes,tell him if he is calm sitting and thinking about what he done he can go,but more refusing will just buy him more timeout.Leave him there as long as he needs it.If that is not a good solution,take all his privileges away.Make a little chart of good and bad behavior.Put little stars on good choices and sad faces on the bad choices.Caress his face and tell him this is what hands are alowed to do,never hitting.I was told once kids do to parents whatever the parents allow them to do.So do not allow it.You are the boss,make him see it and feel it if neccesary.Little spank on a hind will not hurt him,it's not agressive and will make him realize it is time to calm down.

No, No, No dont ask other people to get him for you! You are MOM and need to show him you are in charge and he cant hurt you. When he sees you have other people get him he sees that you are scared of him! You dont want to give him that controll over you. If he only gets that way with you then its probably not something that needs meds to controll. Show him you are bigger than him. When he gets that way pick his butt up and sit him down ( somewhere soft couch) you sit some where else close enough to watch. Ignore all the screaming and throwing him self around get a book so he thinks your reading, dont show him it bothers you....If he gets down you simply put him back and move away as quickly as possible but dont show fear.... try this every time he gets mean! He is just throwing tandrums if it were anything else he would do it to other people too.......Keep saying to him " I am Your Mom You Will NOT treat me this way or you WILL stay on that couch and Never play again. I am MOM I Can Make You Stay There FOREVER!" It sounds mean But You will have an easier time doing it now then when he is a teenager. Plus now you can pick him up and make him sit. Good Luck and be strong!

I don't want to sound mean, but he is doing it because you are letting him.

It isn't a serious "behavioral" issue - this is evident in the fact that he doesn't do this to anyone but you.

There are MANY ways to handle this - but the bottom line is you have to stand up for yourself and teach him about respecting you.

Don't avoid him or the behavior. He is old enough for you to explain the situation to him, when he isn't angry find a way to bring up the topic and explain what the consequences will be if he chooses to disrespect you by biting, scratching, or hitting you.

Make him repeat the consequences back to you, so that you know that he knows that he understands. I don't know what your personal discipline style is, but you could take things away for a preset period of time, sit him in a corner, or on a step, cancel an outing - anything to let your kid know that you mean business.

It is most important to do this when he IS NOT ANGRY - you will get a better response out of him!

Kids will do anything if you let them.

No. This is not normal.

Hi. It's not totally abnormal. I have a daughter who hits, pulls hair and throws things when she is frustrated. She has some special needs and we recently attended a workshop on sensory and behaviour issues. What they suggested was to act as if it was not bothering you and ignore the child. When they calm down, you can give him praise for behaving and just continue as if nothing happened. Does this happen at a specific time--like when you want to leave some where or change activities? What can help with that is a transition. Some children work well with a countdown..."In 5 more minutes, we'er going to go home....in 4 more..." A visual timer can also help. If you are interested, you can see my blog about my daughter and what has and hasn't worked in parenting a special child here: http://delayedtoddler.today.com. Good luck!

My 3 year old will hit me and pull my hair when she gets mad. She has a major anger issue, and all the people saying your kid can only do what you let them, trust me I've done EVERYTHING i can to stop this behavior...charts, token boards, positive reinforcement for good behavior, negative for bad, I am a one to one behavioral assistant and am trained in ABA and it is HARD to get her to calm down when she has a tantrum. I've done everything from ignoring to literally holding her down because she was really hurting me and destroying anything around her. I understand what you are going through because I am too. All you can do is keep trying things to change the behavior for the good. Time outs dont work for me because i would have to hold her in the chair and i felt almost abusive when i would do that. All kids are different and they need to be handled differently. All you can do is keep trying to find what works for your child and dont give up. Be consistent with what you do try, and always stay calm. Yelling at them won't help and getting stressed out won't either, trust me. Good luck to you and God Bless

It might be helpful to find some books to read with your son about his angry feelings, and what he can do with them. One is:
When Sophie Gets Angry--Really, Really Angry...
by Molly Bang

A children's librarian at your library or your pediatrician can suggest other books...

With my kids, I used to sing an old Mr. Rogers song---"What do you do with the mad that you feel? Do you jump up and down?" etc.

It's OK to have angry feelings---everybody has them---but then you have to teach them how to deal with them, and safe ways to express their anger. It's scary for them, too.