[saturnfire16]

It doesn't make any sense to me either. I don't want my child to stay out of the road because they fear me. I want my child to stay out of the road because they understand that it's not safe. And I want them to learn how to determine when it is safe to go in the road, under what circumstances and conditions. But that all takes time and growth and maturity. If I make a blanket statement that "the road isn't safe" then I'm a liar and a hypocrite when we cross the road at the crosswalk or when they see me go in the road to get a stray ball.

My 4 year old is very responsive to "a car is coming" and "remember you're in a parking lot" because we've repeated these phrases over and over and over since she started walking. We backed them up with the action of holding her hand, picking her up, getting out of the way of cars, pointing out the she is little and the drivers can't see her.

And I LET her play in the road or parking lot when it's safe. She can ride her bike in our apartment parking lot. There's a dead end road by the park where they can walk in the street. When I say "car is coming" she bolts for the sidewalk. My 19 month old doesn't have a clue what that means yet, so I pick her up and point out the car as it drives by. No amount of hitting them is going to help them understand faster.