If your children spend most of their time in other people's houses, you're lucky; if they all congregate at your house, you're blessed. Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966 The Keys to Effective Discipline
Disciplining a child is one of the most important, yet difficult, roles of being a parent. Effective discipline teaches a child to be self-disciplined later in life. It helps your child grow up to be happy and well-adjusted. Effective and positive discipline teaches and guides children, and helps them to feel safe, secure, and valued.
Discipline should be based on a child's age, development and temperament. A parent's goals by disciplining their child is to protect them from danger, to help them learn self-control and self-discipline and to develop a sense of responsibility.
Children should be respectful of their parent's authority. If they're disciplined harshly or unfairly, especially if it includes shouting or humiliating, will make it difficult if not impossible for a child to respect and trust their parent.
Parents must be consistent in their discipline. Discipline that's not consistent is confusing to children, no matter how old they are. If parents are inconsistent in the way they discipline their children, children may find it hard to respect them. It can also indirectly encourage misbehaving and result in confusion and frustration for the child.
Discipline must also be fair. Parents must make sure that the punishment fits the crime and doesn't punish too severely or is too lax. The consequences of their actions should be related to their behavior.
In order to discourage bad behavior, give your child choices about what to do. He will appreciate the chance to make decisions. Make sure rules that protect the safety, health and well-being of your child are given top priority. If your child is irritable, tired or upset, be understanding and try to help calm them. It's important to keep in mind that bad behavior can sometimes be circumstantial.
Encourage positive behavior in your child by spending quality time alone with your child each day. Give your child hugs, cuddles or a gentle pat on the back, and give praise when praise is due. If your child is angry or sad, try to understand why. Teach your child good behavior by setting a good example and behaving properly and appropriately yourself.
Parenting Plan
They must keep in mind that a child is not a miniature adult, but only a child and that discipline must be age appropriate and fit the child's temperament and maturity.
Are your kids turning into a couch decoration that hardly ever moves? Can you be a proud parent because you always know exactly where they are? This could be a good thing for our nerves when we do not have to wonder where they are, but how good is it for their health when they are constantly sitting on the couch or floor playing video games or watching television. This has become a serious habit for some kids and many parents are at the end of their rope when it comes to getting them out of the house and being more active.
Parents are not the only ones concerned about how inactive many of our kids are becoming. Obesity among children it at its highest level since records were started years ago. A large part of this obesity is due to the technological world we live in. Children used to love playing outdoors because most of the time there was not much to do inside the house that was that much fun. That is definitely not true today. Kids are suffering from high cholesterol and sometimes even high blood pressure. This is stemming from the large amounts of fats in their diet and also from the lack of enough physical activity to burn off all of those fatty calories.
So, what can parents do to help get their kids moving short of starting a fire under their rear ends? The object is to get them to get outdoors and be more active. It is hard to get them away from computers, video games, and their favorite videos. The trick is to make outside activities just as enjoyable. This might require some movement on your part as well. This means that if you want then to become involved in exercise of the physical kind, you might just have to roll up your sleeves and get out there with them.
Many parents involve their kids is sports activities that go on in their community, but this might not be for all kids or fit into every family schedule. Sometimes spontaneous things like just going out and tossing a ball around or going for an unplanned bike ride is beneficial. They get their exercise, you get yours, and if your lucky you and your kid get to spend time getting to know each other again and have a smoking, calorie burning good time doing it.
This is when bonding and emotional separation takes place. Let your child see you communicate in a positive and healthy manner with one another, and show love and affection for one another so your child can begin to learn early on what a healthy marriage should be like. It's also imperative that your spouse and any other adult caregivers are all on the same page and following through on punishments with the same level of consistency and clarity. Knock before entering your child's room. Avoid using candy or other treats as reinforcement. When you nurture your own self -esteem and importance, your child will learn to do the same, so be sure to lead by example and steer clear of self-depreciating yourself or engaging in activities that lower your self-worth or importance. It could motivate them to do the same.
Though we strive to open an honest two-way line of communication with our child, we become frustrated when it appears their attention isn't solely on us or the conversation at hand.
Parents must be consistent in their discipline. Discuss afterwards what your child learned from the story and how they'll handle a similar situation in their life the next time it occurs. They can solve problems that come their way, and it thrives under a loving parent's nurturing care.
