What do parents need to know about discipline tools?
“To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail.”
― Abraham Maslow
Disciplining is one of the key responsibilities that parents undertake. Discipline is meant to teach children the difference between what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. Previously, we have covered the connection between discipline and self-worth, strategies to deal with difficult behaviour , and the concept of positive discipline.
Now that we have covered different discipline tools and strategies, today, we will cover what parents need to look for in discipline tools.
What should every parent look for in discipline tools?
A book published in 2008 by Judy Arnall, Discipline Without Distress: 135 Tools for Raising Caring, Responsible Children Without Time-out, Spanking, Punishment, Or Bribery, lists a few important points that parents need to remember while choosing a discipline tool for their children. They are as follows:
- The tool or strategy should help parents build connections with their child to create an open, connecting relationship.
- It should help children solve their problems.
- It should help the child build trust in the parent’s experiences so that the child is more open to listening to the parent.
- It should give the child a solid information base so that the child can use it to make decisions.
- It should build parental influence with the child to counter the heavy peer influence.
Parents need to build a connection with their child so that the child can reach out to the parent in case of any problem, query, or an issue. In that way, parents can extend help whenever their child is in trouble. A sense of mutual understanding is quite important, and it has to be developed layer-by-layer right from during the child’s formative years.
Effective parenting tools and strategies do make this process easier and hence, they need to be selected carefully. Keep the aforementioned guidelines in mind while selecting the parenting tools, and also do ensure that your parenting style is aligned with them for better results. As always, be patient and consistent, and you will see results in no time.
Reference:
Arnall, J. (2008). Discipline Without Distress: 135 Tools for Raising Caring, Responsible Children Without Time-out, Spanking, Punishment, Or Bribery. Canada: Professional Parenting Canada.
Also read,