Parenting Help

Does your child understand about child discipline? Does your kid know the difference between being punished and being disciplined?

What is the difference between ‘discipline’ and ‘spanking or punishment?’ When you discipline a child, you are guiding them toward an understanding of appropriate behavior.

On the other hand, punishment – hitting, spanking, or controlling behaviors in response to your child’s actions – does not teach self-control OR appropriate behavior.

You may wonder why your child needs to understand discipline when you are the one that will participate in the activity. The reason your child needs to understand is that they are really not just the ‘recipient’ of your discipline, but they are a ‘participant’ in the process.
Think about it this way: You can talk to them until you are blue in the face, but if they do not respond, they are not participating and when they don’t participate, they usually just continue the behavior you are trying to stop.
SO, if you are going to teach your child to be an active participant in the discipline process, you must first teach them what child  discipline is and how they are expected to work with you to achieve your desired outcome.

Let’s look at how you can introduce your child to the idea of guidelines, rules and discipline.

For your child to understand the concept of discipline, they must understand the following:

Some behavior is unacceptable because it can be dangerous, rude or inappropriate at the time.

Everyone has to obey some rules. It isn’t just your child who is restricted.

If we are to live together peacefully, each of us is responsible for our actions and we must be sure that the things we do are not harmful or unfair to others.

In exchange we expect that others will treat us with the same respect.

Respect means we listen to and care about what others want and need.

Some rules are always in place, some are only in place under certain circumstances, and some can be broken if there is a real reason to do so. Help your child understand the guidelines and when flexibility is allowed.

Rules of behavior include:
•    How your child plays with others and how they treat others, including you.
•    Picking up their own toys and cleaning up a mess they’ve made.
•    Eating, napping, and going to bed on time, doing homework, obeying safety rules.
•    Sharing and listening to others.
•    Being quiet and sitting still when it is appropriate.
•    Eating and behaving at the table during meals
•    Not interrupting when others are talking
•    Not talking back – listen when someone is talking to you.
•    Not getting angry, throwing a temper tantrum or hitting, biting, etc.
You can probably think of more!
Especially if you have a young child, don’t try to teach every rule at once. Don’t try to break all bad behaviors at the same time.

Child discipline is a process, and needs to be an integral part of the home life style when raising your kids. Helping your children understand this process will help the journey of parenting become less stormy.