Get the tips you need to be able to practice positive discipline with your kids. Discipline does not need to be angry or confrontational.
Discipline doesn’t need to be mean, grumpy, or loud to be effective. You can discipline your child in a positive way and still get the teaching point across. Here are some ideas.
Prevention
One of the best ways to have positive discipline experiences is to exercise a lot of prevention. If you can prevent a situation where your child does something she shouldn’t, you prevent the conflict from ever happening. Training in Times of Non-Conflict is key here. Another key is your personal example (see Parent’s Example). You set the tone in your home. I have many other tips on prevention:
- Ask and Tell
- The Best Parenting Tool You Will Ever Have
- The Problem with Credit Card Parenting
- Discipline Foundations for Your Baby
- Why Prevention is a Powerful Parenting Tool
- Proactive and Directive Parenting
- Teach Kids What Obedience Looks Like
- Discipline Strategy: Think Prevention First
Encouragement
Encouragement is powerful in helping teach your child the correct way to behave. See my posts Using Encouragement as a Discipline Tool for more on this.
Have Empathy
Whenever you are disciplining your child, work to have empathy. Try to understand why your child did what he did. Try to understand what will help your child to refrain from repeating the mistake again. Understand what makes your child tick. What makes your child feel loved? What response will help your child improve in this situation?
Speak Quietly
I often find the most effective discipline is when I sit down with the child next to me or on my lap, put my arm around the child, and speak quietly with the child about the situation. This communicates caring and love. This opens the child up to listening to you. Facing your child head-on and raising your voice can make the child angry, defensive, and scared. You want your child to listen and learn. If the child knows you care, she will be more likely to listen.
Redirection
Sometimes a child really just needs a simple reminder that what he is doing is not correct and to be directed to something that is acceptable. Substitution is one great strategy. You can also use Distraction as a Discipline Tool.
Related Posts
- Parents: Here is Why You Need to Be a Good Sheep
- Hey Parents! Moral Training Starts With You
- How To Teach Your Child to Come When Called
- Teach Your Children While They are Young
- You Teach What You Are: Kids Learn from You
