Healthy Disciplining – The Best Way To Discipline A Child!

Disciplining a child is every parent’s nightmare! It is a job that parents dislike as it takes a lot of patience and can be very taxing. Remember it is your duty to instil good behaviour in your child, no one else but only you can do this! Some parents are naturally blessed with well-behaved kids, whilst some parents have to deal with imps.

Long gone are the days when you could pick up a stick and beat your child. In this day and age, you need to learn effective steps to healthy disciplining. Below are some of the best ways to adapt in order to teach your children how to become well mannered.

As a parent, one of your jobs is to teach your child to behave. No doubt, it’s a job that takes time and patience. But, with the help of healthy discipline strategies, you will be able to positively as well as effectively teach your child to behave in an acceptable manner.

Remember harsh words, verbal abuse and spanking are not the way to go about disciplining your child. If you want to instil good behaviour it means you have to practice good behaviour to be able to preach it. By yelling, screaming, abusing or beating the child you are instilling fear and doing more harm than good. In the long run, this will have negative effect on your child affecting their growth mentally and physically. The same has also been proven by research. Physical abuse such as spanking, beating increase the risk of injury and the younger the child the higher the risk with possible long term damage on the brain and body. Whilst verbal abuse can scar the child emotionally causing an increase in mental health issues and behavioural problems as well as depression in older children.

1. Teach Your Child Right From Wrong & Try Use Positive Language- Using calm words and actions helps eliminate bad behaviour. Stay calm and you will be able to preach calm. Avoid using ‘No’, ‘don’t do this’, try to replace them with positive words like ‘can you do this please instead of….’

2. Set Rules & Let Them Know Who’s Boss- Make rules that are easy to follow (according to age) and make sure your child adheres to these rules. If the rules aren’t followed make sure they know there will be consequences that will follow. For e.g., if the rule states: picking up toys at the end of playtime and the child doesn’t listen be firm and let them know that the toys will be locked up for the day. If they still don’t listen do it! Let them know who’s in charge if you falter then they will not take you seriously.

3. Listen & Give Attention- Both are important! Allow your child to finish his/her part before you jump in. Sometimes you will easily get to know the issue just by listening & sometimes all it takes is talking rather than a consequence. Remember by giving attention is important when trying to discipline your child by reinforcing good behaviour and discouraging bad.

4. Praise Them For Good Behaviour & Ignore OR Redirect Bad Behaviour- It’s important to appreciate your child when they have done something good. This way you encourage good behaviour. If your child is throwing a tantrum and being mischievous, just ignore or divert attention to something else and it should stop.

5. Use Time-Out- If your child is breaking rules then use a TO. Use 1 minute per year (age). At times, instead of using a timer, you can even say time-out and ask the child to return when they are ready to. This works best with 3 and above.