An already tired mom coming home from work goes straight to her son’s room.
“Clean up your room right now”, she tells him nicely.
Her son ignores her request and just continues to play video games. After an hour, the room is still messy so mom repeated her instructions and got a response from her son, “OK mom.”
Dinnertime has arrived and mom was surprised to find out that the boy was still immersed with his video game activity.
“You have to make sure that this room is in tiptop shape before bedtime or else…”
A week has passed and the boy wouldn’t budge from his video game addiction. Now, the mom is more adamant than ever and swiftly banned her son from using any form of entertainment until she says so.
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What Most Parents Want (Ok, All Of Us)
Admit it. As parents, we unconsciously treat our children like how we treat apples when we buy them from the grocery store. We scrutinize if there is a blemish and chuckles disapprovingly if it is not the perfect apple we believe we deserve.
But children are not perfect. Even if we only want them to be successful, happy, respectful of others, self-motivated, and well-behaved, the road we must all take before we reach that point is bumpy, muddy frustrating, and challenging.
What We Usually Do
It is not uncommon to be instantly annoyed or angry when our children do something that is not right by our own terms. We resort to nagging, shouting, and threatening to make our young ones stop what they are doing right away. We dislike them so much for their naughtiness and use punishment as a way to correct the misbehaviours. But afterwards, we feel guilty about it and end up miserable for not treating our own brood more nicely.
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What We Can Do
If raising well-behaved children is easy, then we won’t have any of articles. Sadly, you would find countless websites, self-help books, and child psychologists dealing with this kind of dilemma because it can drive you up to the wall and can be the most nerve-wracking and tear-inducing responsibility of a parent.
Knowing how to react properly when your child misbehaves is essential. Being consistent about it is the hardest yet most crucial aspect you can learn in order to prevent discipline problems and never having to experience the same situation over and over again.
Reward correct behaviour
Make your child be aware of your approval when he makes polite requests and nice gestures. Encourage him to engage in calm discussions instead of arguments.
Think twice
Think twice before you let something slip out of your mouth. Choose your words carefully. And you have to reinforce it with a behaviour that mirrors what you say.
Teaching good behaviour
It is never too early to teach your children to be responsible and make positive choices in life. As soon as they are able to play, you can guide them to proper behaviour that they should follow as they grow up. If you lay the ground rules clearly but in a loving manner, you will help your children to be more prepared in facing the real-life situations.
Set rules
Create a plan that will help in thwarting any misbehaviour pattern. Let your children know about your rules and guidelines using easy and clear presentations so they will be encouraged to choose to do what is right.
Doing the right thing
Teach your children to feel good about doing the right thing and to see self-reward for accomplishing it.
Have a united front
You and your spouse must see eye to eye when it comes to discipline and reward giving. Your children are smart enough to manipulate the situation if they can find out that you disagree in how to treat them when they are misbehaving. Discuss in private and try to agree in all manners of raising your children properly without destroying the cohesiveness of your marriage.
