How to Correct Your child with Love

You must have heard the saying spare the rod and spoil the child. In as much as this is often true, caution must be taken when correcting a child. Here comes the big question,  how does one correct a child without being too strict or abusive and still be able to convey the message to them. Children can often be naughty and thereby need to be disciplined so they don’t go wayward.

Disciplining a child is different from assaulting or abusing them. Discipline has to be done with lots of love and care. 

Here are the things a parent should know and do when correcting or disciplining their children?

1. Be Calm: Sometimes the child needs to understand what they have done wrong and why they shouldn’t do what they have done, this can only be done when you do it calmly. When a child does something wrong, we need to be calm when correcting them else you might be teaching them to be more violent when you shout or scream at them.
2. Be In Control:  It is very important when you are correcting a child, you need to be in control. The child may have done something very bad and even while correcting them they tend to defend themselves and talk back. Make sure they only talk when you ask them to talk, don’t let the child take over the conversation. Also, ensure you give them the opportunity to air their views.
3. Punish Bad behaviour: It is important for them to understand that bad behaviour would not go unpunished. You may have a little code of conduct which you both agree on. For example, you will get this,  get them to sign it and anytine they err, refer back to the code of conduct. That way they understand that they are being punished for what they did wrong. 
4. Create rules and also tell them the consequence: when a child continuously displays a certain attitude, it is logical for parents to set rules, boundaries and consequences if they are broken. The children are then aware that they mustn’t break the rules and if they do there would be a lot of consequences.
5. Reward Good Behavior: When your child behaves well, always reward them for good behaviour, give them gifts or treat them to their special or best delicacies. This will teach them that being a good person attract positive rewards while bad behaviours attract negative rewards.
6. Tell your children you love them after disciplining them: Some children can translate being disciplined as their parents not loving them, it will be wise for parents to explain to them why they are being punished. Make them understand the reason why they are being punished. After which you tell and show them how much you love them, children would always trust and relate with parents who always do this even though they feel bad for being punished.

Parents should know that a child needs to be disciplined when they do something wrong, there is no crime in punishing a bad behaviour if it is done right and in a loving way.