Smart & Positive Techniques to Discipline Your Children

Disciplining your child is one of the most challenging aspects of parenting. Every parent finds themselves struggling to find the proper disciplinary techniques that can work well with their children. On the one hand, patience is important; losing your temper and shouting at your child is never a good idea. On the other hand, it is also essential for children to take disciplinary actions seriously.

Every parent has their own approach to discipline and parenting. Effective discipline for children from an early age helps children gain necessary life skills that help them grow into responsible adults. Here are some important benefits that children through discipline –

1. Discipline offers children a chance to experience leadership and get good guidance in most of their life decisions. Down the road, when they need to make crucial decisions, they can do so without self-doubt or anxiety.

2. Discipline teaches kids to make the right choices. A child grounded for riding a bicycle without a helmet learns to make safer choices in the future.

3. Getting a time-out/punishment for hitting another kid or fighting with someone teaches children to control their emotions and manage their anger early.

Even though disciplining a child is challenging, it is an essential part of parenting. When done right, discipline can help your child to be an intelligent and successful kid.

Ways to Discipline Your Kids

1. Understand the Motive Behind the Misbehaviour – Children, just like adults, respond strongly to a strong provocation. Understand their provocation; perhaps there was a valid reason for their anger? They say that there are no bad children, only bad behavior. Calmly tell your child why their behavior was bad and how their actions caused harm. It will help them learn to behave better.

2. Plan One-to-One Time – One to one time with both parents is essential during a child’s growth years. You can combine it with your chores or do a project together. It could be an hour or even just twenty minutes in a day. The important part is to keep all your devices away and focus on your child during this time.

3. Know When Not to Respond – Sometimes, the best strategy is to ignore bad behavior. Often children misbehave for attention, and ignoring such misbehavior helps stop it. Children also learn the consequences of their wrongdoing on their own in this case.

4. Set Clear Expectations – Don’t assume that your child will know the right thing to do. Talk to them beforehand and state your expectations clearly. Tell them what you want them to do; for example, “Clean up!” doesn’t say anything specific, while saying “Please pick up your toys and put them back in the box.” sets clear expectations.

5. Give Consequences – Calmly explain the consequences if your child doesn’t behave. For example, you will take away the Xbox if she doesn’t stop playing within an hour. Be prepared to follow through if she does not comply. It doesn’t help to give in and return the Xbox after a few minutes. However, it would be best if you never took away something that your child truly needs, like a meal.

6. Be Firm but Empathetic – Before you take disciplinary action, it is essential to show empathy. Ensure that you communicate that you understand how your child feels, but they still need to behave in the right way. For example, if your child says, “He won’t let me play with the aeroplane!” you can respond by saying, “I know you really want to play with the aeroplane, but snatching it from your sister is not the right way to take it.”

7. Praise the Positives – Finally, the most important aspect of discipline that most parents forget is to praise positive behavior. Children should know that behaving positively helps them get your love and attention, rather than bad behavior.

There is no one best way to discipline a child. Remember to stay calm and firm when implementing a discipline technique with your child. We all make mistakes from time to time, but the important part is to think about what went wrong and do it differently next time. Whatever disciplinary techniques you use, make sure they are healthy and positive. Need a hand with parenting challenges? Talk to us!

Author Bio:

Samidha Raj works as part of the content marketing team at PlanetSpark, a platform that provides online classes to K8 learners on "New Age Skills" like, English Communication, Public Speaking, Grammar, Creative Writing, Debating, etc. She is passionate about empowering the youth by educating parents about the importance of 21st-century skills. In her free time, you can find her watching documentaries or animated movies and organizing game nights (board games are her thing)! Purpose of the article: To promote “Spoken English for Kids”