How many discipline tactics have you tried on your kids to no avail? Why do you believe these tactics don’t work? Well there are a few reasons. Lets take a look at two of them:
* Kids understand that at some point they can manipulate certain things that you do. For instance, some books tell you to take away things a kid might like in order to get them to act right. This might work at first, but ultimately it can backfire. If you go on your word even once pretty soon kids won’t take this seriously anymore. There’s also the chance of the other parent going behind your back to give the kid what they aren’t supposed to have.
* Too many books or articles that try to teach you how to discipline your kids assume that they are reasonable to begin with. This is seldom the case. You might have kids who are very smart and aggressive. You need to apply a different strategy to the way you deal with them. Heck, you might even say that you have to trick them at times into doing what you need them do.
Discipline is all about getting your kids to do what needs to be done or setting boundaries. If you have to use a little manipulation in order to do this then so be it. Here are a few tested discipline tricks you can use on your kids now.
* Change the subject when things get too intense. There’s going to be times when your kids want to have a heated exchange with you about something or when they’ll just give you a hard time. An example would be a kid in a grocery store that wants you to buy them something. Change the subject fast and see if this works. The key here is to focus on the right subject.
* Try to focus on the good instead of on the bad-When your kids do something they shouldn’t do, instead of telling them how letdown you are focus on something good about them. This is a way to let them know you don’t see them as being bad. It gives them a chance to reinforce your positive view of them. No kid wants to be called bad or unruly.
* Make games out of uncomfortable situations when need be-One example would be the kid who doesn’t want to eat their vegetables at dinner. One good way to get them to eat them would be making the vegetables into animal shapes or even having an eating contest with an incentive offered at the end.
Not all of these methods are going to work. The goal with using discipline tricks on kids is to get past any resistance they might offer up and to make your job as a parent easier. Sometimes you’ll get results, but sometimes you won’t. In the case that you can’t use tricks to get around an unruly kid, you’ll have to resort to old fashion methods of discipline in order to show your kids who the boss is. We’re not talking about spanking or anything, but various forms of disincentives.
