I am a stay at home mom to a toddler. I have never hit him, nor has anyone else, and he is very polite and well behaved for his age. Kids act as well as you treat them. Toddlers do not listen to reason, that is true. It is developmentally appropriate that I have to hold boundaries that he does not understand. I can hold boundaries with kindness or with “brute force.” Toddlers are humans too and deserve to be treated with the decency we give to any other human.