*This guest blog was contributed by Dee Styles*
I noticed my daughter was becoming more difficult to deal with. It seemed like she was intentionally being naughty, and when I’d had enough of it, I told her to stay in the naughty corner.
The funny thing is, every time this happened she would apologize immediately with tears in her eyes. She would be quick with the hugs and to tell me that she loves me. But sure enough, it doesn’t take long before she gets right back to being naughty again. My hubby also noticed the trend so we talked about it and decided to do something different. Disciplining her was obviously not working, shouting (me basically screaming my head off all the time) was just wrong because she screamed right back and this wasn’t the example that I wanted to set with my child, or the relationship that I wanted to have with her.
When my hubby and I decided to do what we agreed on, there was a turn around almost immediately! Positive parenting for the win! So, how did we go about this?
Obviously a lot had changed; with her brother now in the picture she has to share her mom and dad. Not only that, but a new school term began with a new class, a new teacher, and new kids. My Princess had a lot to deal with and she definitely needed my help – more attention, extra patience, more love and positive words.
So this is where I revea the big secret. It’s all about using praise to get your kid to do the right thing.
Every child loves to be praised, and no child loves to be scolded. Praising your child more will make your child try harder at pleasing you.
While this method actually requires you to have some extra patience, trust me when I say that the reward at the end is worth it.
So if you see your older kid throwing more tantrums than usual, instead of giving more privileges or gifts and unnecessary attention (or worse intensified discipline or shouting like I initially did) try this instead: show more love by using praise. And when they do the right things, shower them with even more praise.
This isn’t as easy as it sounds, so you’ll want to exercise patience with them. Remember, this is your child, and you need to invest the time in helping them to grow up to be great adults. with patience and the right approach, you can begin to help them to make the right decisions for themselves.
xoxo Dee Styles