Hello everyone and welcome to the Your Village podcast, Parenting Beyond Discipline, the place to learn about all things parenting and get your questions answered. I'm your host, Erin Royer. This week I'm going to talk about aggression in kids from toddlerhood through the elementary school years. What is normal, what is not,

and some ideas on ways to handle aggressive behavior when you see it. But first, I learned an

interesting statistic just the other day that I thought would be good to share since Valentine's

Day just passed, and that is a full 70% of parents of kids under

two go out on a date at most once a month. Now, I don't think once a month sounds that terrible.

I mean, once every couple of weeks would be nice, but once a month isn't bad. But for any parents

like my husband and myself with really no family support around, once a month is't bad. But for any parents like my husband and myself, with really no family

support around, once a month is pretty good. But I remember going six months or more without any time

out together. So if you are like we were and it's months between dates and some much needed alone time,

or if you're a single parent, you need some time out with friends or to pamper yourself

even more than dual parent households. So I'm here to urge you all to make it a priority

soon and take some time away. Get a sitter, get a friend to swap sitting duties. If you have a

local relative, take them up on their offer and get some time away together or away with your

friends. You deserve it.

Okay, so back to the main topic this week, kids and aggression. I get parents asking questions

about this a lot and how to handle it. So I thought it would be a good topic to cover.

When it comes to aggressive behavior, aggression in toddlerhood is very normal. One year, even a little

younger, up through four and even five, grabbing toys, hitting, biting, kicking, and or pinching.

This doesn't mean it's acceptable. It just means that it is a normal way of behaving and of trying

to get their needs met. After I give a little more background on aggressive

behavior in kids, then I'll share what you can do when you see it to teach better ways of

interacting. So as I said, this physical aggressive behavior is normal, up to an including age

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