I was at my wits end yesterday with one of my daughters and it got me to thinking about all the different types of discipline out there and which one is the best method?\u00a0 I was shopping with my girls and I saw a mom hit her daughter on the arm for doing a minor infraction and I was thinking to myself that my girls do not know how patient I am with them.\u00a0 My oldest daughter is 3 \u00bd now and she gives me a run for my money.\u00a0 So which are the best types of discipline especially when you are at your wits end as I am all the time!<\/p>\n
Time outs\u00a0<\/strong>– Personally, I think these are more for the adults than the children.\u00a0 It gives us some time to cool off and deal with the discipline in a calm manner.\u00a0 I am sure that I am not the only one that has gotten so upset when their child did something and needed a few minutes to calm down before dealing with the problem and the consequences.<\/p>\n Addressing the problem\u00a0<\/strong>– In our house there are some offenses that are immediate time-outs such as hitting, biting or talking back, unfortunately I have had to add covering when coughing since that seems to be the new defiance moment.\u00a0 Mostly, I believe that addressing the problem immediately works well for us.\u00a0 We had to do major work to get our daughter to understand how to apologize for her actions.\u00a0 Did I mention how stubborn she is?\u00a0 Now, when she knows she did something wrong it is say you\u2019re sorry or go to time out?\u00a0 She mostly will say her sorry immediately and I know when she really means it.\u00a0 That is another one, I hear children apologize all the time but they just say it.\u00a0 I do believe it is important to mean what you say so if you believe your child is just apologizing to do it and not really mean it then you might have to take an additional step in reintroducing what saying I\u2019m sorry really means.<\/p>\n Spanking\u00a0<\/strong>– I believe that violence leads to violence and there is way too much violence around us for myself to be spreading it in our house.\u00a0 Saying that there are times when you feel the need to spank your child.\u00a0 Just make sure you are calm when you do it, because if you are not you might regret how you hit and what you are teaching by hitting.\u00a0 The law states if you leave a mark on your child it is child abuse and you can get into trouble.\u00a0 Unfortunately it does not apply to the reverse.\u00a0 If your child hits you that need to be address immediately and you need to work out what is going on and how you can fix the situation before it gets out of hand.\u00a0 Remember they might be young now, but they will grow and get stronger so the sooner you get a handle on the hitting, biting, scratching, etc. the better for you!<\/p>\n