I'm child-free by choice. It's a great way to be. It's not right for everyone, but it is definitely right for me. As such, I don't have a lot of experience with child-rearing. When I was a teenager I was forced to care for my sister's son a lot while she was still in her running wild days, but that is pretty much my only direct experience raising kids.
That being said, I've seen kids. I was a kid. I watched my friends and relatives grow up. I've met a lot of people who used to be kids. In all of this, there is something I have observed that I think is worth sharing.
Kids like attention.
Kids who are not receiving attention soon learn that they can get attention by being loud, inflammatory or just plain bad.
When bad behavior produces the attention they seek, it reinforces the behavior. Over time, the bad behavior escalates and eventually because the only attention-seeking mechanism.
The solution is to ignore the bad behavior, not reinforce it by providing the attention they are seeking.
Just saying...