Good behavior from children doesn’t just happen. It takes time and work on your part as a parent. It’s not always easy to shape a child’s behavior, but it can be done with patience and love. When you take the time to work on the behavior of your child, although they may not appreciate it now, in the future it will help them become productive adults that are happy and successful. Here are a few parenting tips for better behavior that can encourage and help your child to change and improve their personality for the better. With a little positive coaching, anything is possible!
Tip #1 – Learn to Ignore Harmless but Undesirable Behavior
One important tip that can help you to encourage better behavior from your child is to learn to ignore harmless but undesirable behavior. Sometimes it can be hard to find a balance in parenting. It is important that you fight the important battles while allowing some behaviors to simply be ignored. If the behavior is not hurting property, an animal, or humans, then it may be a behavior that you should simply ignore. Instead of getting into arguments over the small things, sometimes not even acknowledging the behavior is a good way to deal with it. Negative reactions in some cases can actually reinforce the bad behavior of the child, so in some cases, the best thing you can do is show them that the particular behavior will be ignored. This will teach them to abandon this behavior, since it won’t get them any attention.
Tip #2 – Teach Your Child About Cause and Effect
Teaching your child about cause and effect is one of the best things you can do to help them learn the right way to behave. When children experience the effect of their behavior, they will be more likely to learn the lesson. To become successful as an adult, kids must learn that wise choices are important. Experience can help to teach your child many lessons that you could never teach by talking to them. Although you need to make sure children to not make choices that are dangerous, in many cases, allowing your child to make their own choice will be an important lesson. Allow your child to deal with the consequences of the choice they make, which will provide fast learning for them.
Tip #3 – Praise Your Child
When you want better behavior from your child, praising them is one of the best things you can do to help shape them. Praising them for some good when they don’t think you are looking can be even more powerful and effective! In most cases, kids really want to have your approval. Make sure that you are praising the positive behavior though instead of praising the child. For example, if your child does a good job on their room, consider saying “You did a wonderful job on your room,” instead of just saying something like “good girl.” Of course, you don’t want to take praise overboard, but genuine praise can definitely be helpful. Too much praise can give your child the idea that good behavior is an option. It is better to expect good behavior from your child and use praise to reinforce that good behavior from time to time.
Tip #4 – Avoid Using Negative Comments
It is important that you avoid using negative comments with your child when you want better behavior from them. Nagging all the time with negative comments will take a toll on the self worth of your child. In fact, in many cases, these negative comments can end up making their behavior even worse instead of better. Repeating your commands or repeating negative comments again and again can make a child nervous and leads to behavior that is negative. It also shows that you do not trust your child. Stop using negative comments and instead us forms of positive communication, which will provide you with better results.
Tip #5 – Use a System of Rewards to Motivate Your Child
In many cases, using a system of rewards to motivate your child can prove effective when you are working to encourage better behavior. Of course, you need to be cautious here. You don’t want your child to expect a reward all the time when they behave the way they should. Your goal should be to get your child to want to behave well, not just because they are being rewarded. One good system that works is creating a chart. The chart can include different aspects of good behavior, and it will also be a visual that can show your child how they are progressing towards their reward. If you decide to use charts, keep them simple, place them where they can be seen, and keep the time until they collect the reward relatively short. Simple rewards that are frequent provide children with the most motivation.
Tip #6 – Keep Reminding Your Child What they Should Be Doing
Although it is hard to comprehend as a parent, children really do forget to do things. It may sound like a lame excuse, but many children need to be reminded about their behavior and the things that they should be doing. Use subtle prompts to keep your children on track. A reminder should not seem like you are nagging at the child, but they should be small and simple cues that will help give their memory a little job. Basically, you are giving your child a clue and they can use it to get the right message and do what they are supposed to be doing without you have to even give a command.
Tip #7 – Withhold Certain Privileges
Last, there are some points when you can withhold certain privileges to help better your child’s behavior. There are many things that kids want that are not rights, but they are privileges within the home. For example, if your child has a cell phone, this is not their right. It is a privilege. If they fail to do their homework, you may need to let them know that they can lose the privilege of their phone if they are not being responsible to do their homework. This will help you teach the child an important lesson – more privileges leads to more responsibility.
Shaping your child’s behavior is important. You want to ensure your child has good behavior and that they grow up to be successful as an adult. With these tips you can effectively work with your child to encourage better behavior. You may be surprised at how well these tips work, and they’ll take some of the stress off you as a parent too.
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