In the olden days, children are taught to behave by means of punishments, such as yelling or spanking them. The parents now were mostly brought up in this way when they were young. As society develops, this method of teaching children is being gradually phased out as more research done by experts have pointed out that the side effects outweigh the benefits reaped. Children are at a growing up age and their minds are still innocent. They should be guided and protected during this period.
Punishments should be meted out according to the severity of the wrong doing. For example, a small mistake like dropping food on the table does not warrant a severe punishment. Speak to them in soft tones and make sure they understand what they did wrong. Spanking or yelling at them will make everyone unhappy and they might not even know what they did wrong.
Try to set house rules that everyone should follow. Explain to children the importance of following rules. For example, if everyone breaks the rules and throw rubbish everywhere, the world will be a rubbish dump very soon. As parents, you should also stick to the rules so that your children would be more willing to follow them. State clearly to them the consequences of misbehaving as they have to bear responsibility for their own actions! Enforce the punishment immediately after noticing because if you don’t, they will think that you are not serious in doing so.
Remember to reward them for good behaviour. Mature adults also expect their good deeds to be noticed, nonetheless children! Don’t cancel out a reward with a wrong doing as this is unfair to the children. Rewards and punishments should be noted separately. A big hug, complimenting them or a favourite treat can go a long way. Besides, you can also build up your relationship with them! By rewarding them, you encourage them to be good and so you do not need to punish them so often, something all of us do not fancy.
Don’t jump to conclusions. You might end up punishing the wrong person if you do so. If something happens, express your disapproval at your child by telling them how they should be behaving and how you felt about them misbehaving. By showing to them you are very disappointed and sad at their actions; they might feel guilty and try to fix things.
Take your child’s age and character into account as some methods might not be suitable for them. Consult child experts or peers to get new ideas or to know what is going wrong. Spanking or yelling at them accomplishes nothing and only succeeds in getting everyone unhappy.
If you are a parent who is struggling to stop your child’s bad behavior, then you probably need a wide range of simple, proven effective discipline techniques revealed in the Ace Child Discipline Guide to win the war against misbehavior.
