Coping With Discipline
Coping With Discipline & The Strong Willed Child
Obedient easy going children generally don’t require that much discipline. If you tell an obedient child to stop a certain behavior he will obey because he wants to please you. Conversely discipline & the strong willed child go hand in hand. Tenacious children are often purposely defiant and if you do not reel them in when they are young then their behavior will be impossible to control once they reach adolescence.
Trial And Error
There are countless books, magazine articles, blogs and television shows devoted to the subject of discipline & the strong willed child. All of this material can be very useful and many parents have used it to find effective techniques that work. By process of trial and error you may be able to find a method of discipline that works. However, you could quite conceivably read every book, article and blog ever written on the subject of discipline & the strong willed child and not find a viable solution for your own son or daughter.
The truth is that the parents of any strong willed child are in the best position to decide on the most effective discipline method. Only a child’s parents really know what brings him joy and see where his passions lie. Often the issue of discipline & the strong willed child is easily solved if the parents use the child’s passions to reward and punish him. If, for example, a child is crazy about baseball his parents can reward him by playing the game with him or letting him watch his favorite team in return for a job well done. Similarly if the child misbehaves an appropriate punishment would be to prohibit him from playing or watching baseball.
Don’t Give In
When it comes to discipline & the strong willed child the last thing a parent should do is relinquish control. Your child may decide to scream, yell or even strike you in a bid to get what he wants or avoid a just punishment. The day you give in to such behaviors and let your child off the hook because you are so tired of dealing with his willful behavior is the day you lose the battle. Be consistent in your parenting and always let your child know who is in control. Strong willed children need you to be firm with them if they are ever going to be able to cope with the demands of an adult world. Disciplining a strong willed child is an extremely difficult task, but the rewards are worth fighting for.
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