Career-and-lifestyle

Discipline Tricks: As told by Teachers

The Do-Over – When a child is acting up, simply say something like “Please make a different choice”. Children have an undying goal to make adults proud. Although it may seem that they are acting up most of the time, notice the times that they do try to make you proud. They really do feed off of this kind of approval. Of course, if they do not fix their behavior it’s time to take away a privilege.

Bring on the Guilt – Instead of scolding a child to stop what they’re doing, you might want to try a little bit of guilt. Give the child a reason to stop what they’re doing while giving them the chance to reflect on how their actions may affect others.

Get down to their Level – This helps you to engage in a direct conversation with said child and reprimand them in a way that they are more inclined to hear and understand.

Train their Superpowers – Single out your child’s most “colorful” attribute and train them to harness it for good. For example, if Suzie is a bit bossy – explain to her that she has a strong personality. She could be a Queen one day, but the Queen needs to have people that like her! Tell her to start training to be the nicest Queen in the world.

Changing “go” to “come” – This is still a command. You are not compromising your authority in any way. What this does is change the tone from confrontation (which kids are more likely to rebel against) to cooperation.

Address them directly – You can accomplish this by saying their name first. Make sure you’re standing close by when you address them. This makes it harder for your kids to ignore you. Simply say their name first then follow it with something that you want them to do next. For example, “Robert, go clean up your play area”.

Create a Take-a-Break Space – This is not a time out. This is an area (TV free) designated for your child to simply take a break from a situation. If they are sad, overwhelmed, or even growing upset about something they can go to this special area until they (and even you) calm down.

The greatest ways to parent, of course, come from your own experiences based on what’s best for you and yours. Try a few of these if you’re looking for different techniques. It’s always good to keep yourself and your children on their toes. 

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