"pretend' hitting...what to do?

[buddyleebaby]

Abigail has started hitting to gauge my reaction. She doesn't really hit, she sort of brings her hand down quickly but softly and says "ow" as she makes contact. Then she looks at me and waits to see my reaction. She does it at random times- to me, Evelyn, and household objects. She has not tried it with her father. And it is not in conjunction with tantrums.

I have been saying "We do not hit. People are for hugging." initially and then if she does it again I say "No. No hitting. That will hurt".
That's if it is directed at me or Evelyn. If she is hitting the couch or a toy or something I say "That's just a silly old couch so it's ok." Not that I really want her to smack the couch but I am trying to get across the whole hitting hurts people thing and since she is obviously testing it out I thought it would help her differentiate, and I guess I am picking my battles, honestly.

Still I'm not sure of my technique and I've only been doing it for a couple of days when all this started so it is not too late for a change.

[crAbbymom]

I think that's a really good approach. If you overreact about it, she's probably going to be more likely to decide that it's fun!

[megs4413]

my DD started doing the same thing like a month ago...she would wind up like she was going to hit and then gently tap and look at me to see what i would say....i just try to reinforce the idea that we don't hit people. i usually say, "don't hit mommy that hurts me...why don't you hit the pillow?" and she never actually goes and hits the pillow, but you see what i'm saying. she also hits herself for some reason...to see what i will say, and i usually tell her "no don't hit my baby! that hurts Maddie!" or something like that...and i we move on..i'm not sure if it's going to work or not, but i'm just trying like you, to play it down as much as possible but still let her know that hitting hurts....i guess we'll see how it goes...

at playgroup yesterday, a 1yo was hugging DD and then just pulled her arm back and swung at her! Hit her right on the side of the face and hard enough to leave a bruise! it was crazy! but i was proud of DD cause she just looked at me like "why did she do that?" and i said "she's a baby she doesn't know that hitting hurts." and DD just went about playing...so at least so far this hitting thing hasn't extended to DD hitting other kids...even when they hit her!

[scoop22]

i am interested to see what others post here. ds is starting to hit. he defitinly tries to hit me more than dh he will say "ba" it sounds like bad. we never say that to him so i don't know where he gets it. i hope your dd stops the hitting thing soon. i hope this phase will pass soon as well. unfortunately ds hits when he doesn't get his way.
http://b2.lilypie.com/XbITm4.png

[buddyleebaby]

she also hits herself for some reason...

Yes, she does that too!
And I say the same sort of thing you do.