I have a 4 year old son from my first marriage. My current husband is wonderful with him, but my son runs wild!!! Some days he is so wonderful and loving and others he will scream NO!!!! Right in your face when you tell him to do something.

He still sees his father and that might be part of the problem. My ex refuses to use any kind of discipline and spoils him rotten.

My husband and I don't like to spank and it really doesn't do any good. He refuses to listen to anything anyone says and he is beginning to become violent. If you put him in time-out he'll bang his head against the wall forever!! We have thought about counseling and everyone says we are too hard on him. HELP!!!!!

Divorce is hard enough on children without parents that battle and have different ways of discipline or the lack of.

Your ex-husband lets him run wild and he gets spanked at your house. Sometimes a child will do anything to get attention of any kind including this type of behavior.

When he acts up like that, don't spank him... let him know how much you love him, but that type of behavior is not acceptable at your house. You and your husband need to be consistent on what punishment will be used so that he will know what to expect. His time outs should be in his room alone with no television or games and with a specific time. He needs to know that at the end of this time he can come out if his behavior changes... then leave him alone.

He doesn't like time outs alone, so he acts up more because it does get your attention, even though it is for the wrong reason.

Considering the difference in the way you and your ex-husband have of raising him, I highly suggest professional counseling.

It's hard enough raising kids these days, let alone having two sets of parents that have different ideas of how he should be raised.