Ever not know what to do to help your kids with bad behavior? I find that sometimes my kids get the better of me with bad behavior and I have no idea what to do. It’s times like this that I have a secret strategy I bring to the table.
I have four kids and they have been known to be bad on occasion. Now yesterday was one of those days. I said to the kids “OK, everyone come to the kitchen table for a family meeting please.”
Everyone gathered together and I picked up a wooden spo Read more
Child discipline issues can be tough to deal with. I want to share something that happened at my house last night because I think it might be able to help a few parents.
Now Sam is 14 years old. He was watching television and it was after 10pm. I don’t have a curfew for bed time for my teenagers during the week, but I was getting a bit frustrated as I knew that my son would have great difficulty getting up in the morning for school.
I was pondering in my mind whether I should discipline Read more
Well I sat down to write about discipline today but nothing would come out. You see, two of my friends died yesterday in a car crash on the Sunshine Motorway. So I had to write about what was on my mind.
I have three teenage boys and they are good friends with the son of the two people who were tragically taken yesterday. We got the phone call and then suddenly I had to forget about myself and think about how I was going to help my children cope with the grief of their friend’s loss of bo Read more
Who wants to know how to get your child to go to bed on time? It can be a never ending battle but there is a key. We don’t want it to be a struggle, we want it to be joy, just part of the daily routine. Here are some keys to help:
Always discuss in advance what the bed time will be. Children do not like surprises and will not respond well to “it’s time for bed”. Make sure the child knows what time they are expected to be in bed. If the child is under five then you need Read more
I guess we all struggle with trying to bring out the best in our kids. As parents we all want to do our best but sometimes we just don’t know what to do. Well, I went to a course at church on Sunday and thought some of you might be interested to know what we talked about.
We talked about Jewish custom and how the Jews used to bless their children at puberty. They called it a Bar Mitzpha (sorry about the spelling). The Jews would recognise the time that their child became an adult, or when Read more
What should we do with angry kids? I’ll tell you one thing you should not do. Don’t try to talk to them. Here’s why: when a child gets angry they cannot see the situation clearly and they certianly cannot think clearly. It is actually a chemical reaction. The brain releases something (sorry, I wasn’t that good at science). This chemical that is released actually scrambles the brain so that your thoughts are not clear and logical. It is not possible to talk rationally to s Read more
All kids steal money at some point in their lives. I can remember when I was about 8 years old. We were on holiday and I saw a pair of shoes with a 5 cent coin in them. Now back then 5 cents was alot of money. It could get me a ride on the train at the park. I remember struggling with the thought that it was someone else’s money but that I really wanted it for myself.
I can remember walking up to the shoes and crouching down like I was going to tie up my shoes, then quickly picking up the Read more
As parents, we need to be aware of how to enforce good child discipline. We can do this by being consistent with our children. Do you put your child into time out when they hit their sibling? Then do it consistently every time. Do you ground the child who goes off to play without letting you know where they are going and what they are doing? Then do it every time. Do you make your preteen write you 20 lines when they talk rudely to you? Then do it every time.
I am trying to make a point here. W Read more
Children love having boundaries, although they would never admit it to an adult. Boundaries actually help kids to feel more secure. This means they don’t have to be guessing about how their parents will react to something because they always know in advance. You see the rules are clearly defined. These children display self control more readily and will happily take responsibility because they understand the reasons behind what parents do.
The end result of having good boundaries is that the c Read more
How can we parent our kids and teens better? I think the answer lies in allowing our kids to have more choices, not fewer. We want to empower our kids and teens to make better choices for themselves, and this does not happen by wrapping them up in a cocoon. Here’s an example of something that hopefully will cause you to rethink some of your parenting strategies.
My mother and her sister were both given cigarettes at age six and eleven. Mum will not smoke now but her sister became a chain s Read more
