Advice on a 2 year old ( human )

My daughter is 22 months old. She is very adorable, sweet most of the time, very verbal. BUT, she is so rough. She plays rough with other kids and the cats. I don't think she intends to be mean, I don't even think a two year old could comprehend to be intentionally mean. But she is sooooo rough. She will snatch toys from the little boy that I watch, she'll pinch me if she is mad at me. She is pretty rough w/ her big brother too. She has made him cry many a times, and he is much bigger than her!!!!!!!!!!!
I know this isn't really cat related, but I know a lot of you have young children too. My son never acted that way, he was always really sweet and gentle!
So, any advice you can give me would be great! My mother said it will pass and that it is a stage. BUT WHEN??????????????????????????????????????????? I love her to death, and I try to be patient, but when she is so mean I feel like I am always repremanding her w/ time outs ( we don't spank ), and am constantly saying to "be nice"......its getting old.

Daniela, here are some ideas that should help.

IMPORTANT: Make sure you catch her being good! Every single time you see her playing gently with the cat (or her brother) tell her how good she is behaving. Make sure you point out what is good about the behavior. "Sally, you are petting the kitty soft! I like that! What a good girl!" The more you catch her being good, the more she will do the good behavior.

Make sure that the time out begins immediately after the aggression...with two year olds, if time out is delayed even a minute or two they won't make the connection between the behavior and the consequence. Also, for a two year old, make sure that the time-out lasts no more than 2 minutes AFTER she starts sitting quietly.

Also keep in mind that the whole purpose of time out is that it is time away from reinforcement. So, make sure no one speaks to her, plays with her, makes faces at her, or gives her any other attention while she is in time out.

Remember that she is too young to understand philosophical conversations about why her behavior is wrong. Use commands that have no more words than their age....so, since she is two, your commands should be two words long. "Be nice!" "Don't pinch!" etc followed immediately by time out...with no additional explanation.

Make sure you use time-out EVERY TIME she is aggressive. If she gets away with it every now and then, she is more likely to do the behavior. If she has a negative consequence every time she is aggressive, she is likely to decrease the aggression. So...even when you are tired or busy she needs to be put in time out.

Most important is catching her being good...so put lots of effort into doing this.

Good luck! I feel for you!

Oh thank you for the response!! You are so right about catching her being good. She is such a sweet little girl. She plays well, she is very very affectionate, but then she'll just have a day where she is terrible!!
I try to praise her every time I see her being gentle, but now I will pay even more attention. I think you absolutley right. Thank you!!!!