Good ways to discipline children from a young age

I found time out or the naughty corner to be effective. With a minute for each year and to talk through they why they were placed into there afterwards.
Also consistency. If you say ‘if I get to three I’ll do XYZ’ you need to do XYZ on three.
Each child is different and so is each parenting style. I found this worked for me

Throughout my whole life, my father has (discreetly) pointed out old ladies with their funny drawn-on eyebrows. Countless times I’ve heard the story about when he & one of his brothers were kids, their father was talking to an old woman. She wiped her forehead & her eyebrows vanished! Dad & my uncle roared with laughter because that was a pretty impressive trick to a kid. They copped a full 20th century catholic beating for it. All these years later, I’M paranoid about overdoing my eyebrows! I obviously wasn’t even born when this happened! Everyone in my family has heard this story countless times. We laugh every time.

Jokes aside, Dad grew up to be an abusive a-hole. We don’t get along even now I’m 50. Times have changed so much. Beating children used to be so common! I’m grateful that there is even a debate about how to discipline kids properly now.

I have found consistency is key. You always count to 3 , advise what the punishment is, and then follow through with the punishment.
My punishments vary depending on the cause….

1. Run onto the road/something dangerous gets a smack on the bum (firm enough to be felt, not enough to leave a red mark)
   2.Hurt someone/ be rude or disrespectful gets time out (one min per year so 4 yo gets 4 mins)
2. Backchat or not do as asked/told gets loss of…. iPad/game we play daily/ story in bed.

I am no parenting guru, i dont even have kids however i am a firm believer that real discipline is important, whether its the naughty corner or the wooden spoon (dont judge – when i was a kid i only needed it once and i was afraid of it i never got it again). Ive grown up seeing the difference between parents who discipline their children and people who let their kids do whatever they want. Glad there are people who agree with me!

My mom always scold me for making my kid cry. Because he ( the poor 4 year old) does not get to change his mind sometimes.
I guess when you set the rules, you cannot bend them tooo often or kids will know how to break them.

and

make sure your partner is on board too, nothing says “get out of jail easy” if your partner is happy to let things slide.

we are all humans here, don’t fret too much, if you are a disciplined person it will rub off to your kid too.
in terms of punishment, never ever make threats that you do not carry out.

I have 2 kids and also work in child education so it definitely comes down to the child, age and behaviour. They are all so different. Remember there are differences between discipline (which essentially means to learn the appropriate way to behave) compared to consequences (every action has a reaction). I don’t like the term punishment because if you focus just on ‘punishing’ there tends not to be a focus on the correct behaviour so kids don’t actually learn how you want them to behave, they just know they have done it wrong.

I choose to focus on teaching and praising the behaviour you want as well as consequences (eg. No tv time if you have not put away toys). I also think it’s important for kids to realise they are not ‘naughty’ as such but their behaviour is, if that makes sense. Time outs can be effective although when used incorrectly are more of a ‘punishment’. It’s vital kids know what they have done wrong and how to fix it.

Lots if misbehaviour comes from a need not being met so it’s also important for parents and teachers to get to the reasoning behind ‘why’ not just’what’. I know my daughter really misbehaves when I’ve not spent quality time with her, when she’s overtired, had too much junk, etc. So working out behaviour triggers is important too (I should add understanding the why does not make the behaviour acceptable at all, but can help future meltdowns).

And somedays, no matter what you do, your kid is just a jerk and we all constantly make mistakes which is the best way for us ALL to learn 🙂

It depends on the age. I’m a big believer in sitting them on a ‘naughty chair’. No interaction while they are on the chair as it’s like a time out. I used that method on my two and my parents used it on me. The time on the chair has to be age appropriate though. When they get considerably older, I’d use time out in their room and perhaps no TV or confiscate one of their toys.

I found with my 3 year old, me and my partner need to work together! If one says no, the other needs to support the decision.

Definitely depends on the age, and even more so, the personality of the child. I found with 3 children, what worked well with one child may not work at all for the other 2 and vice versa.

Having a consistent approach works best too.

I always think counting to 5 and then applying punishment eg. no TV works well. It gives them a few seconds to think about what they’re doing and to stop it before they get a punishment.