How Do You ACTUALLY Discipline Your Child?

Disciplining a child is every parent’s dilemma.

By providing too much to your child, it can leave him or her feeling inadequate or bristling with emotions her or she can’t understand.

By not giving enough discipline, the child has no standards that he or she is held accountable for.

There must be a balance. But how do you do it? How do you know that what you’re is not too much, or not too little?

How much discipline should be invoked is dependent upon the disposition of your child. It’s different for every child and every parent. It simply means that you need not discipline your child the same way your neighbor does.

For example, if your child’s personality is on the meek side, reprimanding him or her frequently would do little good. A stern talking to is preferable than a time out or a pat on the butt. In addition, positive reinforcement for your shy child may encourage him or her to adhere to a format that caters to his or her disposition.

Now, what if your child is a stubborn one?

This is where it usually becomes tricky for most parents.

Does your child resent you for making them clean the mess they made? It is important to realize that despite what you child says at the time of reprimanding, he or she needs to know that their behavior will not be tolerated.

For example, a time out or taking away of a toy, and sticking to it, makes the child understand that their actions have consequences. To reiterate, it is imperative to stick to your guns. If your child knows that you will back down to them, then why should they listen to you in the first place? Go think about it.

Besides, it is very important to have open communication with your spouse. Both of you must be in agreement to the degree of punishment. Once the punishment has been handed down, both of you must abide by the decision, even if one of you disagrees with it.

There will be time to discuss it after the discipline has been done. The important thing to understand is not to disagree openly about the action taken on the child, unless it is detrimental to the child.

Did you know children are smart? Really smart I would say. If they see an opening, they will try to pit one parent against another. It is pivotal that both parents are unified in their decision.

While what I’ve just said above may seem obvious to some people, not everyone does it. I have seen first hand parents disagreeing about one of their decisions in front of their child. That should be done in private. I have disagreed with my husband before, but did not say anything until we were alone and able to talk about it.

Don’t you think so? Tell me what you think by leaving a comment below.

You Want to Read These Too :

1. 10 Basic Child Discipline Guidelines
2. The Best Ways to Implement Child Discipline Through Different Ages and Stages
3. The Difference Between Discipline and Punishment
4. The Biggest Parenting Myth – Smacking Is Detrimental to Discipline