Health & Medical Parenting

Parenting Tips - You Set the Rules

The next parenting tip I have for you is that you set the rules.
You as the parent should have free reign to "set the rules" of your household and family.
After all, this is in keeping with how the real world works.
We all have to follow certain rules to maintain order in our society.
If the following of rules can be practiced by your whole family, it will make your lives much easier and less confrontational.
Key Points about RULES for your family:
  • Follow the rules rather than enforcing your will.
  • This is a key component that teaches respect for following rules.
  • Example of the "training run" to the store.
  • Direct experience of the consequences, not talking about them.
  • You get to side-step the confrontation.
Let's look at an example.
If you are having difficulty with the kids acting out in the car while you're driving, make a new rule which says if the kids are misbehaving in the car, you will turn the car around and go back home.
It is important to schedule "training runs" when you really don't have to go shopping or run errands but specifically designate a time to drive to a location just like you normally would.
When the kids act up, immediately turn the car around and head home, with the statement that the rule was broken, and therefore the result is you all go home.
This as an event will be imprinted in your child's memory banks, and even if you have to repeat this exercise many times, it will eventually lead to a resetting of the behaviors your kids will exhibit in the car.
By direct experience, they will associate misbehaving in the car with having to go back home.
You really don't need to say very much if this action takes place on a consistent basis.
In this way, you are working with the learning process of your child and giving them plenty of practice.
One last point to make on this is that now the confrontation stance is between your child and "the rules", not you personally as the parent.
If you can maintain neutrality in the interaction, you will see a dramatic decrease in the friction between you and your child.
In fact, you can take the same side as your child and empathize with the fact that they must follow the rules and perhaps things will turn out better next time.
Now both of you will be working together the next time you're in the car, to do what you can to prevent the rule from being invoked in the first place.
Try this out and see how much it can help you and your family.

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