Remember to Move Your Feet, Not Just Your Voice.
These days, everybody focuses on using consequences to discourage children from misbehaving. Unfortunately, this has led to people overusing consequences, particularly scolding. (The majority of your rewards and consequences are verbal, simply because they are quick and easy.)
If you want effective discipline, it’s important to remember that you have to move your feet rather than your voice. For instance, when your children are in the basement and you are upstairs in the kitchen, resist the temptation to yell downstairs, threatening them with what they will lose out on if they don’t settle down. Instead, go down to the basement. Use your presence and authority to take control of the situation. Speak assertively and quietly. Direct your children and insist they do what you tell them to do. If necessary, remove one of them (or all of them) in order to ensure that they behave appropriately.
Here are some other examples: When leaving a department store, don’t yell at your child that it’s time to go. Go and get your child, take him or her by the hand and leave the store quietly and promptly. If you are having trouble getting your children to clean their bedrooms, remember that you should be in the bedroom with them to supervise the task.
You can’t do discipline from a distance.
©1999-2003 Woodstream Publishing™, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Terms
of Use
Any School and/or Organization has the ability to use the current tip of the week or a previous tip of the week in any type of publication as long as the
source of the tip is included. e.g. Tip obtained from www.realdiscipline.com - Author : Ron Morrish
Return to Tip
Archives
|
