Father Shouting At Young Daughter
The advice to parents is to respond in a corrective, nurturing way when disciplining their children that supports a child’s self-esteem. Appropriate discipline should begin early on.
Physical discipline is not recommended. Research continues to demonstrate the negative impact of physical discipline on the health and well-being of children.
The starting point for families is that the word discipline means to teach. We admonish our children in an effort to teach them what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior, what is safe and not safe to do. When spanking, what are you teaching?
By hitting your child your kids learn that it’s okay to hit. Children imitate our behavior. That’s exactly how they‘re acting out their experiences, so if you set the precedent that hitting is okay, don’t be surprised that they hit others.
Studies show hitting children can cause long-term damage that increase the likelihood of depression, anxiety and antisocial behavior.
Children need consistency and repetition. The rules have to be the same regardless of whose household they are in. And you have to provide a consistent response. You have to respond appropriately to the misbehavior. If it’s wrong at grandma’s house, it’s wrong in our house. Kids don’t learn their ABCs in one try, and they won’t learn your rules in one try, they learn by repetition.
Timeout is very effective and not just for children.
Kids can make us angry, they make us frustrated. But we have to understand their development and as they’re becoming mentally and physically more independent, they start to test their limits. It’s not that they’re being bad, but they‘re experimenting and we have to put the boundaries in place in a nurturing way. Parents should take a time out themselves – take a deep breath, walk away for example.