From childhood, we have been taught to behave in a disciplined manner. Discipline is probably the most misunderstood word in the world of parenting and teaching. It is not a matter of control or just obeying a set of rules.
What is it then?
It's about guiding children to choose right over wrong, teaching them responsible behavior, empathy and self-control. Discipline is about setting rules to stop your little one from engaging in behavior that's aggressive, dangerous or inappropriate.
How soon should we start?
As early as possible. Six years ago, when I got discharged from hospital after my delivery, the only thing my Paed told me was "disciplining your child right from day 1 is as important as you feed him". She is such a lovely and gracious lady and I would never forget her words. Teaching self-discipline while they are young can help them throughout their life. Whatever the child's age, it is important to be consistent.
How to guide?
Just the plain word discipline or rules will never work. Warm but firm parenting that encourages good behavior is the best way to guide children. Speak out to the child very often and make them understand why such behaviors are important. When your child follows rules, give them a lot of recognition. Below are some factors that will help the disciplining process easier.
- Building a strong emotional connect with your child.
- Spending time with them
- Playing and having fun with them
- Listening to them and allowing them to take their own decision at times
When disciplining won't work
When the child has to face any of these situations frequently, they never dare to listen to us and rebel.
- Too much of criticizing
- Comparing them with other kids
- Shouting at them
- Nagging them etc
We can classify the child's act into Negotiable Behaviour and Non-Negotiable Behavior
Negotiable Behavior is where your child needs a warning or support to act in a disciplined manner and it is okay for the child to take some time to learn. Suppose if you make 8.30 as the bedtime and the child really can't sleep, then the parents should understand its quite common for kids to get set to a regular bedtime in the initial days and have to find out strategies that help the child go to sleep. Try implementing the strategies regularly. It is fine even if it takes a lot of time for the child to get the sleep. For that reason do not allow them to go to the bed late. Be persistent on 8.30. Eventually (might be days or weeks or months), it will happen and from then on the process will be smoother.
Non-Negotiable Behavior is something which is not acceptable for any reason/situation and has to be clearly spelled out to the child. Make clear eye contact with the child while explaining about non-negotiable behaviors. And stick onto it at all times, strictly NO exceptions. For instance, using abusive/foul language on others, inappropriate acts that hurt someone etc. Being unvarying is very important in this kind of behavior. It's not like one day I am OK with it because I am busy with some work and don't have time to deal with it, and the next day I get angry with the child saying it's not correct. It's extremely important that every single family member, be it the parents or grandparents or uncle or aunt stand on the same line.
Remote Commands will not work at all times. You ask your child to do something really simple, like pick up the toys and put them back in their place. After a while when you finish your work and go to check on the child and everything stays as such. I know this will be very frustrating for the moms. The trick lies in the way how you phrase the sentence. For example, when you are initially guiding your child put their toys back in place during bedtime, you can say something like "Seems like your cars need some repair. Let's take them to the mechanic shop and leave them there overnight to get them fixed". The child will be super excited and do as you say. Once he/she gets used to such kind of clean up before bedtime, then something like "its clean up time now and once you are done you can pick any of your favorite books for story time" will work. What happens here is the enthusiastic level gets triggered by the word " they can choose their storybook" and the work gets done instantly. And the clean up becomes a routine for them. Occasionally, your child may not be interested to pick up their toys. During then, instead of pushing them hard to do that, we can just say "Its ok dear, if you are really tired, mom can help you just for today and you have to do it by yourself tomorrow". So the expectation that the toys has to be cleaned up by the child daily is clearly set.
Disciplining is a process. It needs time, effort, patience, a whole lot of new ideas and hard work. Also, we have to understand that, each child is different and each child needs a different approach to make them understand things. What works for one child immediately, might take longer for the other child to understand. We as parents need to figure out the way that works best for them. It's challenging, but not impossible!
P.S Thank you for going through my article. Each parent is an Encyclopaedia when it comes to raising a child. Strategies are never-ending. Would love to hear from you, what works for your child? Kindly share them in the comments section below!