| The need for discipline Discipline is a necessary part of your child’s development.As a parent, it is your job to teach your child right from wrong, how to respect others and make them realize that society has certain common rules that everyone is expected to live by. Your child needs to know the difference between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. More importantly, disciplining your child is one way of setting her on the right path. |  | Disciplining your child does not mean that you should punish your child. There are several ways to teach your child what you want them to learn without using physical force. Getting your child to behave the way you want may seem like a difficult task,but with a little help and advice, it may not be as hard as you think.
| | Smart discipline strategies
Here are some discipline strategies you can adopt when your child does not listen to you:
Logical consequences: When your child misbehaves,create consequences that fit her misbehavior. For example, if your child does note at the dinner you fix, let her go to bed hungry. If she breaks her toy, don’t buy her a new one immediately. It will not be long before your child learns to play carefully with her toys. Just make sure that the consequence does not put your child in any danger. This strategy will teach your child that she is responsible for the outcome of her behavior and to learn from her mistakes.
Time-out: This strategy is usually recommended for those with younger children. When your child misbehaves,give her a brief explanation of why she is being given a time-out. Then send her to a boring place with no distractions, like TV or games. The general rule is that1 min of time-out is given for every year of your child’s age. For example, a 5-yearold would get a 5-min time-out. Explain to your child which behaviors will be punished with a time-out. If your child repeats it, send her to the time-out spot immediately.Once the time-out is finished, do not lecture or ask for apologies.
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 | Privileges restriction:With this strategy, you simply remove a privilege that your child normally has.Your child will realize that she has to give up something she likes when she does not cooperate.For instance, if your children are arguing over who picks the TV channel, you withhold TV viewing until they settle their differences.However, never take away something your child really needs, such as meals.
Restitution: When your child misbehaves, make her do something to make up for what she did wrong.For example,if your child calls her sister bad names, require her to apologize nicely.
| | Spanking—a bad disciplinary tool
Many parents think that physical punishment, such as spanking, beating and slapping,becomes unavoidable to prevent undesirable behavior and to stop rough activities of your child. Experts say that physical punishment only reinforces violence. Some reasons why you should never spank your child are: | - Spanking may make your child stop certain behavior. It may seem to work at the moment but it does not teach her to correct or change it.
- It may teach your child that violence is an acceptable way of solving a problem.
- It may increase your child’s aggression and anger.
- It may cause serious physical and emotional damage to your child.
- Your child may get used to the physical punishment and it may not mean anything to her.
- Your child may become depressed and lose self-confidence.
- Your child may tend to become violent when she becomes an adult. She may even rebel against you.
|  | Tips to make discipline more effective - Have reasonable expectations from your child. Be aware of her capabilities and limitations.
- Praise your child when she does well. Let her know how proud she makes you when she behaves well.
- Avoid too much criticism but make her understand why you are unhappy with her behavior.
- Do not focus on negatives all the time.
- Listen to your child and help her work through a problem.
- Work towards consistency. Try to make rules and approaches stay the same from day to day, and create a predictable environment so that your child knows what to expect.
- Stay calm. Avoid yelling and screaming at your child.
- Do not make too many rules.
- Be a good role model. Be sure to keep your promises. Your child will learn more from what you do than what you say.
- Let your child be involved in deciding when setting the rules for the family. Encourage her to speak freely with you.
- If you feel that parenting is challenging and have trouble disciplining your child, seek help. It will pay off in the long run.
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