response required?

Do you ever feel as if your toddler is manipulating you? I have found that toddlers are little experts in the art of manipulation, they will deliberately do "naughty" things to provoke a response from any one willing to get caught up in the "game"  To put a

swift stop to this response game i usually evaluate the danger(is the child engaged in harmful activity or holding something breakable?) if no real danger is apparent, then i simply ignore the action, the toddler is looking for a response, i can ; play the game and get caught up in the chase me all over the place thing, thus giving the desired response or;get angry and tell the child off or some other form of negative response, thus also giving the desired response of engaging in the action, or ; simply ignore the plea for response and the toddler will simply give up, if the plea for response is put forward in a positive way by the child, he/she is promptly rewarded by my reciprocation

positive response plea= positive response

negative response plea= no response

after a while most response plea's come forward in a positive manner on the part of the child, as this is the only way he/she will be able to engage you, they will simply give up pushing the negative buttons, (obviously if danger is present, swift decisive action is required and delivering it in a no nonsense way will reduce the chance of a response  game resulting from it)any way this is someting that i have noticed with my children, it may be different with others. Ian