Tickling as a punishment (sorta)?

So my wife and I came up with a way to get our toddlers to listen to us, and it's not something I've ever heard of anyone else doing, so I want to know what you people think about it.Background:We have twin toddlers. As you can imagine, getting them to follow directions of any kind has been a major pain. We tried time-outs, taking toys away, rewards systems, and even a brief stint with spanking (we decided that definitely wasn't for us). It all kind of worked, but often ended in tears and tantrums. One day I noticed that when my wife got frustrated she would clench her fingers tightly with and open hand and wiggle her fingers back and forth, kind of like this, but with more finger wiggling. I noticed I did the same thing, and it looked kind of like "tickling fingers". I had also recently read a theory that the origin of tickling is teaching self-defense. Basically, common ticklish spots on toddlers (neck and collar, armpits, ribs, tummy) are all places where a wolf or wildcat may try to bite when attacking, and tickling teaches children to block those vulnerable areas with their bony forearms. Tickling seems to be enjoyable while also triggering an avoidance mechanism. So I wondered, is tickling a natural, instinctive, and painless method for parents to discourage bad behavior?The Method (names changed, obviously):"Sarah! Please [do thing]."Sarah ignores me."You have three seconds to get in the car or I'm going to tickle you :) !"Three, two, one, zero!"I quickly tickle her ribs for about a second.Sarah squeals or giggles and [does thing], or else I start over from step 1.Nowadays I drop step 3 since they know what's going on. Additionally we do not try to use this to stop a tantrum. Being tickled while crying is no fun. We started this method when the twins were 2, and they are now 3, so here are some observations from a year of trying it out.The twins are much more responsive to countdowns now, as opposed to when countdowns ended in timeouts.Tickling takes a lot less time than timeouts, important for when we're trying to get out the door.The twins still ask to be tickled at times. Using tickling as a deterrent has not seemed to affect their love of tickling as parent-child bonding time.Occasionally it took two or three iterations to get them to listen, especially at the beginning.The method has never ended in a tantrum!Hearing a child laugh when tickled is wonderfully disarming to a parent whose temper is rising.More often then not, they end up following the instructions with a smile on their face.These days they respond to the countdown before it gets to zero most of the time.So that's what we've been doing with our kids, and it seems to be working. I'd really like to know if anyone else has tried something like this, or even heard of tickling as a deterrent. What do you people think?TL;DR: Tickling seems to be enjoyable while also triggering an avoidance mechanism. Useful as a deterrent for bad behavior with no hard feelings for anyone? via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2nbmbb4