Disciplining your kid in a positive manner

If you are one of those parents that just constantly yells at your kids, its time you took up disciplining your child the positive way. Disciplining your kids this way involves helping your kids learn what they should do rather than what they should not. It is all about helping them to solve problems than punishing them for having problems.

Here are some tips to discipline your kids the positive way:

• It is futile to be angry as your kid would focus more on the anger than the mistake they made. Parents should learn to manage their emotions and reactions; considered an important skill for effective positive discipline, parents need to learn to be aware and be able to eliminate their emotional reactions and then make positive, kind and empathetic responses.

• If you cannot work through your child’s bad behavior without getting very angry then buy yourself time. Let them know you are addressing their bad decisions; walk away and decide after some time how you are going to respond.

• if you are angry with your child, you can try calming yourself by focusing on your breathing; deep concentrated breathing helps release tension and relaxes your body, so as to help you deal better with your child.

• Be consistent and say what you mean and mean what you say; that’s a security for the kid to know that the parent is running the house and not the other way around.

• You are the boss, so don’t allow your kid argue and negotiate; repeat your point gently and walk away.

• Have a prepared response by coming up with a standard and emphatic response for every situation; learning to use such a response would help discipline even the most naughty child without losing their love and respect.

• Use more of thinking words that are enforceable than fighting words that aren’t; do not threaten or yell. It is best to say "Let me know when you're done cleaning your room and then I can take you to soccer" than "I'm not taking you to soccer until you clean your room," He/she will then know that the focus is on fixing his/her behavior and not on your anger.

• Start slow and master one new technique first instead of trying to change every disciplinary strategy all at once. You will be overwhelmed and discouraged if you try to make too many changes all at one time; set yourself up for success.

• It is never too late to start off disciplining your kid in a positive manner; you can decide to make a change no matter how old your children are. You will definitely be successful if you are willing to experiment with different techniques and see what works.

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