My 3 year old granddaughter yells and hits her parents...she is the most adorable thing and then will get into these "anger things"...everything has been tried that I know about and swatting her back does not help, only causes her to keep going..anyone have any ideas why she does this or how to get her stop?

zero tolerance is the only method i know of that will put an end to hitting. no warnings, just a family rule that says if you hit you get an immediate timeout. then every time she hits anybody, put her directly in timeout for three minutes.

while she is there, don't talk to her at all. if she won't stay in time out, keep putting her back in, with out saying anything to her. don't start the three minutes until she is sitting in her designated timeout spot.

I have to agree with mcr. My daughter is 2 and has quite the temper where if I don't do what she wants I get hit on the face or the arms...or sometimes just to get a reaction from me she will slap her 3 month old brother. I don't tolerate it AT ALL. She goes to time-out IMMEDIATELY (or sometimes even just bed if it's close to naptime or bedtime anyway.)

I can't say this has completely eliminated the hitting as it can take awhile, but I keep at it knowing my consistency will pay off eventually.

I agree, zero zero tolerance. You can't hit them back because it's not helping teach the no hitting rule. If time out doesn't work for the child, you might have to get a bit creative like taking away toys or a favorite TV show or even an outing like a birthday party. Now that it's hot, my kids love the baby pool. If they misbehave, it's doesn't get filled that day. It makes an impact! Just be strong. In the end, mommy and daddy can out will a child:)