Im not a parent, but I know that so many issues with kids misbehaving could be solved by giving them a simple task to complete instead of just yelling “stop” until they cry
Over the summer I went to an art museum with my S/O and their son (age 10). The son wasn’t as engaged as we’d hoped, but also we probably should have known.
He whined about and my S/O said “we went to legoland for you, this is for us adults” which is fine, but that didn’t stop him from whining about.
Immediately jumping into teacher mode, I pulled out my notebook and a pen and I said “hey, every time we stop to look at a painting for a while, I want you to draw it.” He didn’t draw a single picture. I showed him how to do it, still didn’t draw a single picture…but he also stopped whining. He couldn’t complete the task, but his focus was taken away from “I don’t want to be here” and was transferred to “what does this image look like? how can i draw this”
It doesn’t always work, but it teaches kid to channel energy and focus instead of wondering what “stop” means. Because “stop” really means “do something else”.
for some reason your icon being a knife gave me the really strong impression you were telling me all this information at knifepoint