Do children misbehave?

I consider myself to be a mom who is, in general, more aware than most about a child's psychology. I easily give advice to my patients with a smile on my face.
Why is it then, that the smile changes to frowns and stern looks and even gritting the teeth when it comes to dealing with my own 5 year old?
Why is it that I see her behaviour as a 'problem' that needs to be corrected?
What am I doing wrong in these situations?
Will my daughter grow up to remember her mother as constantly correcting and dictating?
I am the one who needs to change.

http://thealternative.in/education/the-myth-of-the-misbehaved-child/

Handling Disrespect

Our parents were never ever disrespectful to their parents. We were, a few times. Our kids are; more often than we were.
That's because they have more freedom to voice their thoughts and express their feelings. Which is good. But how do we handle the disrespect?

http://sparethekids.com/2013/03/how-to-keep-cool-when-your-child-is-being-disrespectful/

Mommy Spanks are Worst

 We're tired, we're upset, we're frustrated. SPANK! We perhaps feel better 'cause we've found an outlet. We also feel bad that we let our feelings run away with us.

But what does it do to our child??

http://stopspanking.org/2013/06/25/maternal-warmth-doesnt-make-spanking-less-harmful/

Don't Sweat The Small Stuff

Am I really helping my children or myself by wanting everything to be 'perfect'??
Who's perfect? What's perfect?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/30/stress-less-parenting-dont-sweat-the-small-stuff_n_3359908.html

Gettings Kids to Cooperate

Impatience, frustration, rising anger, grinding teeth.... all signs of having a disobedient child in the house!
This article promises to help me rise above all this and be the smiling, loving, kind mom I'm supposed to be!

http://lifehacker.com/six-communication-tricks-that-will-get-your-kids-to-coo-511069168

Sounds good, doesn't it? I am sure going to try!

How often we do all the wrong things!

Just today we had a major tantrum and meltdown where I told my daughter to go to her room and stay there until she calms down. I read this blog post later in the evening.... how do we manage to do the wrong things so often?? :(

http://www.ahaparenting.com/_blog/Parenting_Blog/post/What_To_Do_When_Your_Child_Gets_Angry/

Empathise

A wonderful article.

You don't have to give in to an unreasonable child - just empathise.

http://www.ahaparenting.com/parenting-tools/raise-great-kids/emotionally-intelligent-child/emotional-health

What Does Your Child Think of Disciplining Tactics?

Even after reading what I think is loads of material on disciplining and bringing up kids well, I still get stuck in grooves of losing my temper, over-reacting, etc. How does my child react to these reactions of mine? What does she think of it?

Here's a lovely article by Janet giving answers to just those questions. Now if only I can keep these in mind before I 'lose it' the next time.

http://www.janetlansbury.com/2012/02/what-your-toddler-thinks-of-discipline/

Tips To Calm Kids Down

http://practicalkatie.com/2011/02/04/calm-it-down-tips-for-helping-your-kids-relax/

A perfectly awesome post by Katie - Practical Parenting

I'm going to be using the 'pretend' balloon blowing one and the story walk most often, if I can remember to when we need to bring in some 'calm'. Ms. E loves 'pretend' ideas so it should not be too difficult! The trick will be to begin the calming process before she goes completely berserk!

Thanks, Katie!

Positive Discipline Part 4

Where are we heading with Positive Discipline?

The ultimate goal is to have well-balanced kids, who know they're loved and have the self-confidence to face life.

Thanks to Katie Mommy Moment for this beautiful round-up of the Positive Discipline series.

http://www.mommymoment.ca/2011/10/positive-discipline-long-term-goals.html

Turn a 'No' into a 'Yes'

How often do we head into tantrums and fussy behaviour for no reason whatsoever! But is that true? Is there really no reason?

The reason lies in OUR behaviour -after reading this post below, I can see where and how we go wrong as parents in our dealings with our little ones. Yes, we're rushed for time; yes, we've got other things to do BUT making them rush is what makes them dig in their heels and get stubborn about what and how they want to do things. At their own pace.

So it seems to me - for anything we need them to do, we have to make provision for enough time - enough spare time for dawdling and wasting, for getting side-tracked, so that everyone wins and we have a happy toddler by our sides.

Read on!

http://www.regardingbaby.org/2011/10/04/the-secret-to-turning-a-toddlers-no-into-a-yes/

Thank you, Lisa, your blog Regarding Baby is wonderful.      

Positive Discipline Part 3

Here's the 3rd part in the series on Positive Discipline: an excellent post once again. This series is amazing.

http://www.mommymoment.ca/2011/09/positive-discipline-praise-encouragement-rewards.html

Now if only Eyana and I can follow it by the book :)

Positive Discipline Part 2

Katie from Mommy Moment has put up part 2 of the Positive Discipline series. And excellent, it is, as usual.

http://www.mommymoment.ca/2011/09/positive-discipline-structure-and-limits.html

Positive Discipline Part 1

One of the excellent parenting blogs has begun posting a series of articles on Positive Discipline.
http://www.mommymoment.ca/2011/09/positive-discipline-self-evaluations.html

Though I've read so many books, so many articles, yet - parenting doesn't come easy. It's so easy to degenerate into a battle of wills, using our age and size to forcefully make the little ones conform... I often end up using the wrong words, the wrong tactics.

Every little bit of information about POSITIVE Discipline and sharing of it, helps. So I'm putting this up here so that it gets a wee bit easier to know what to do, in the right way, for our kids.

Thank you, MommyMoment!! :)

To Blindly Obey or Understand?

Can't help but post this excellent post by Teacher Tom. Read on and ponder...

http://networkedblogs.com/mDN1N

Spoiled Brats??

I came across this excellent post about all our 'problems' in disciplining our children... it's worth a read, time and again!

It raises multiple questions - all of us who're trying to do our best for our kids in terms of disciplining, upbringing, values, etc., need to read this.

Do we really need to be 'tough'?
Do we need to be strict?
Do we need to show we're the boss?
Do we need to frighten them into docility?
Where do 'spoiled' behaviours really come from?
Should we just let them 'be'?
Should we create a world of commands or a world of facts?

http://teachertomsblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/spoiled-brats.html

How to say NO to your kids

It's all too easy to try and lay down the rules, raise my voice, show a firm index finger, show exasperation, threaten to smack, give deadlines, threaten to withdraw favourite toys, etc., when I want my toddler to stop what she's doing and do what I want her to do. Unfortunately, its mostly ineffective.

The situation deteriorates and she gets obstinate and then unreasonable and then heads into a full-fledged tantrum where 'reason' has all been lost.

All the parenting books come up with good ideas and ways of how to talk to kids and get them to do what we want.

Aha! parenting.com has created a nice concise list:

http://www.ahaparenting.com/_blog/Parenting_Blog/post/10_Secrets_Every_Parent_Needs_to_Know_about_Saying_No/

Here are some more tips:

http://www.ahaparenting.com/_blog/Parenting_Blog/post/What_about_those_days_when_he's_hell-bent_on_misbehaving/

If only it was easy to remember during actual situations! :) I shall try! ;)