An important part of parenting is dealing with children’s behavior problems.When it comes to parenting bad child behavior, parents learn from experience how important it is to be consistent. When bad behavior occurs, parents not only need to be consistent but also need follow through firmly with consequences resulting from that behavior.
To be effective in handling unacceptable behavior, it is important for both parents to agree on the discipline strategy. This means that both parents are involved in dealing with child discipline and apply the same consequences consistently in similar situations.
By sitting down and talking with their children, parents can communicate consistency by talking about the expectations for child behavior and the consequences of disobeying the rules. Of course it is important to make sure that the children understand the expectations and consequences clearly. It is important for both parents to decide and agree upon consequences that are reasonable for instances of bad child behavior, and then implement the consequences consistently.
Any disagreement about handling child behavior problems should be discussed when and where the child cannot overhear.This is because children will attempt to manipulate the situation to their advantage if they sense disagreement between their parents.Children can be very adept at playing one parent off against another and this should be avoided at all costs.
It is important for parents to “practice what they preach” when it comes to teaching their children good child’s behavior. Primarily children learn by watching rather than listening. It is necessary for parents to be an agreement about how they deal with their children’s behavior problems because most learning by children is “caught not taught”.
If parents deal with their children’s bad behavior by screaming at them or spanking them, children will consider such behavior as “normal” and will imitate this example. When parents become angered by their children’s behavior and behave out of strong emotion it is being a hypocritical and will be ineffective in dealing with their children’s bad behavior.
By deciding ahead of time what the appropriate parental response will be toward bad child behavior, and then implementing it consistently through child discipline, parents can avoid this situation. For example using a “time out” technique when bad child behavior occurs is more appropriate and effective than the use of spanking.
As the child matures, parents may find that previously, effective ways of dealing with child behavior may not work. As children grow older, child behavior problems may need to be approached differently by parents. It’s important for parents to be aware of this fact and adjust rules when necessary.
