By Bridget Bentz Sizer
The ultimate Do-As-I-say-and-Not-As-I-do which has been a form of parenting over the years is beginning to fade away, this is because the twenty-first-century child wants to see you do before they make a move. However, instead of trying to understand their kids, most parents respond in an authoritarian way, thus making themselves an opponent to their children. When this happens, parents have just entered into a disciplinary arms race in which there are no winners, only hurt feelings, sore throats and soaring blood pressure. Parenting doesn’t have to be a battle, kids are propelled to learn better and easier with an example, this suggests that you as the parent should act first and they will learn to do-as-you-do.
Discipline has always been a consistent issue faced by most mothers as they try to ensure they do not fail in their obligation to raise well-mannered children. Although, there is no cast in stone methods on how to discipline a child there are definitely practices that help instil positive discipline in children; thereby creating avenues through which children remain true to who they are as well as help them experience the positive outcome and lessons of discipline.
Parenting is not centred on the child alone but also the parent, therefore parents should pay attention to themselves as they also seek to raise their children in a good way. Proponents of positive discipline teach that kids can and will behave better without threats, bribes, yelling and physicality.
Here are seven tips by Bridget Bentz Sizer that will set you on the path to better behaviour and a stronger, more peaceful connection with your child.
1. Understand the meaning behind the behaviour: Naomi Aldort, the author of “Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves,” says that children want to behave well; if they seem to miss the mark, it’s not without a valid reason. “The most important thing is to realize that whatever a child does, we may label as bad, but really the child is doing the best he can. It’s our job as parents to find out why he is doing it,” says Aldort. “Once we know the valid root of the behaviour, we can easily remove the cause or heal the emotions, and the child won’t be driven to behave in that way anymore.”
So ask yourself: is your child hitting her sibling in a desperate bid for your attention? Maybe you stayed on the phone too long or ignored her as you rushed to get dinner on the table. If so, what correction can you make to your own behaviour that will satisfy your child’s need? “A lot of what we expect of children is unreasonable,” says Aldort.
2. Focus on controlling yourself, not your child: It’s hard to keep cool in the heat of the moment, but Dr. Katharine C. Kersey, the author of “The 101s: A Guide to Positive Discipline,” says that parents need to model the types of behaviour they want their children to emulate. Remember, yelling begets yelling, hitting begets hitting. “We should not do anything in front of our children that we don’t want them to do,” she advises. In the case of an extreme behavioural flare-up, this may mean counting to 10, taking a deep breath or simply walking away until you’ve had time to collect yourself.
Jim Fay, the founder of the organization Love and Logic, agrees. “Anger and frustration feed misbehaviour,” he says. Fay offers an unusual tactic for keeping your voice in check: instead of yelling that your child is doing something wrong, try singing it. Fay teaches parents what he calls the “Uh Oh” song. If a child throws a toy after he’s been asked to stop, you might sing, “Uh Oh, that’s sad you threw your truck again. I think it’s time the truck went away.”
3. Be consistent with your expectations. Aldort says that parents often overlook a certain behaviour in the hope that it will pass. “But guess what?” she says. “It doesn’t pass.” If your child bites another child, for instance, you should hold her arm and tell her that the behaviour is not acceptable. If she continues, then it is time to remove her from the situation.
Sometimes a child might try to test the limits by arguing with the rules. When this happens, Fay suggests neutralizing negotiations by repeating one simple mantra as often as necessary: “I love you too much to argue.”
4. Give attention to the behaviour you like, not the behaviour you don’t. Children often act up because they want your attention, so sometimes it pays to ignore those actions you don’t want to see more of. Kersey calls this the “Rain on the grass, not on the weeds” principle. Tantrums and whining? Play deaf or walk away, and your child will quickly learn that there’s a better way to communicate.
5. Redirect, redirect, redirect. Kids who hear “No” or “Don’t” all the time tend to tune those directives out. So instead of telling your child what not to do, Kersey recommends instead offering a positive behaviour to replace the misbehaviour. For instance, a child acting up at the grocery store could be enlisted to help pick out oranges or rearrange the items in a grocery cart, or a kid running around a swimming pool might be challenged to walk “as if on marshmallows.”
6. Exploit the “energy drain.” Any parent who has been in the trenches knows how tiring it is when a child acts up, but did you know that that fatigue can be used to your advantage? Fay calls this the “energy drain” principle. For instance, you might defuse a sibling confrontation by saying, “Wow, you need to take that fight with your brother somewhere else, because listening to that could cause me a big energy drain, and I don’t think I’ll have the energy to take you to the park after dinner.”
7. Don’t bribe. It may be tempting to offer your child a cookie for behaving well during an outing, but Fay warns against it. Offering them a reward sends the wrong message; what kids hear is “You don’t want to be very good and you have to be paid off,” says Fay.”
Instead, Fay says, “the best reward for a kid is time with the parents. “Kersey agrees that quality time is key to a happy, well-behaved child. She recommends that each parent spend at least 15 minutes of one-on-one connecting with a child every day. “Do something your child wants to do [during that time],” says Kersey. “Whisper in their ears how wonderful they are and how much you love them. … It’s the best investment you can make in your child.”
Source: Talking with Kids
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