| What Is Discipline? |
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Before I had my children and I used to see mothers with their children in the counter of the grocery store. The children will usually be throwing tantrums requesting, or better yet, demanding candy, chocolate or whatever was at hands reach. I remember thinking Why cant these mothers control and educate their children better? Well, that attitude soon changed after I had my children. Now I see the same scenario and think Poor mother, breathe in and count to ten. It is not until we have our children that we realize the demands of parenthood and the challenges of good discipline. When I ask parents what they think discipline is, the answer I get is punishment, time-out or reprimands. I disagree. I would like parents to think of discipline as education. Discipline is lessons we want to impart on our children. Not demands. Not threats. Before I talk about effective discipline I want to share some of the research findings we have on physical punishment. It does not work. Yes, you stop the behavior immediately but at what cost. You create anger, frustration and withdrawal in the child. You also teach them a profound life lesson that the bigger and stronger person can hit the little one and the way we solve problems is through aggression. Effective discipline begins with conscientious parenting. Careful thought on issues of faith, moral principles and ethics. What do we want to teach our children? What kind of human beings do we want them to be? Every discipline situation brings opportunity for teaching. For example, when a child crosses the street running without looking, we yank them back, scream and tell them not to cross. Instead, we could stand in the sidewalk, model for them to look to the left, to the right and then cross. It takes longer time in the short term, but saves time and energy in the long term. When they are disrespectful, we threaten, scream and punish. Instead we can model appropriate communication on how to respect adults, communicate feelings and compromise. There are windows of opportunity everyday with our children. If we are conscious we can use them to teach. Most of the time we resort to the above mentioned methods because we dont know what to do in that situation and get frustrated. Read as many books as you can on parenting, on discipline; ask the experts; be open minded in learning new skills; develop a bag of tricks; plan ahead and dont be caught of guard. There are no cookbooks. Find your own style and best fit. Mind Spectrum Institute located in North Miami Beach, Florida specializes in the treatment of anxiety, depression, and ADD/ADHD in children and adults. It is a multidisciplinary treatment center that uses therapeutic interventions, included but not limited to psychotherapy, family and couples therapy, individual and play therapy, neurofeedback, biofeedback, psychiatric evaluation, and psychological and educational testing for accurate diagnosis. For more information about Mind Spectrum Institute, please call 305-936-8960 or visit Mind Spectrum Institute About AuthorMind Spectrum Institute located in North Miami Beach, Florida specializes in the treatment of anxiety, depression, and ADD/ADHD in children and adults. It is a multidisciplinary treatment center that uses therapeutic interventions, included but not limited to psychotherapy, family and couples therapy, individual and play therapy, neurofeedback, biofeedback, psychiatric evaluation, and psychological and educational testing for accurate diagnosis. For more information about Mind Spectrum Institute, please call 305-936-8960 or visit Mind Spectrum InstituteSource: ArticleTrader.com Read more at: ?a=articles&p=54145. |
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