Discipline. No one likes it. Everyone tries to avoid it, the givers and the getters. The problem with most of society today is lack of discipline - giving and receiving.
Might as well go directly to the TIPS:
- Self Control - Have it. Set the example. The only things accomplished by yelling or hitting in anger or frustration are hurting them and showing them it's a solution. (As a parent, I know some emergency situations may require stronger reinforcement and some children can't be reasoned with. Spanking is different than striking in anger, but that's a discussion I'm not touching!)
- Time Outs - Can be a useful tool. Putting a child in a time out separates him from bad behaviors and lets the parent cool down to come up with a rational punishment to fit the crime.
- Follow through! - Make punishments/threats reasonable so you will carry them out. Kids will ignore you if you make empty threats. Be strong! Don't give in when they push your buttons - remind them why they are being punished.
- Repetition - Feel like a broken record? Keep playing it. Being good takes practice, just like math or learning a foreign language - it ain't easy!!!
- Limit Screen Time! - This is so hard in our techie age of gadgets and texting, myself included, blog friends! But kids are losing communication skills and brain cells by letting screens entertain them. We need more DO-ERS! And we need to DO MORE WITH THEM!
Dangling Modifiers - when I found out about this, I was horrified that I did it! If you open a sentence with action, define who is performing the action.
Bad Example: Writing all these posts, some letters were harder than others.
Good Example: Writing all these posts, I got stuck on some letters.
See the difference? In the first sentence, the letters seem to be doing the writing.
commonly confused "D" words:
defuse (v. to make harmless or less tense) / diffuse (adj. spread out, not concentrated; v. to scatter or spread)
disburse (to pay out) / disperse (to scatter or drive off)
dos and don'ts (NOT do's and don't's)
Find more A to Z posts here, LOTS more!
40 comments:
I'm enjoying theme of your helpful tips. :)
Ah, diets. A diet is what we eat. We used to always joke about being on a see-food diet. I see food and eat it.
I love your theme, thank you for sharing all these tips and advice.
All good points. My personal opinion is that you shouldn't spank kids ... just consenting adults ;P
I know some adults who could use an occasional time-out...myself included! :)
The dreaded dangling modifier...hate it. I purposefully have to remind myself sometimes to NOT do it. But even then, I still catch a few on my re-reads.
Is self-control something you think children are born with, or something we can foster? I feel like I've developed it significantly in my adult life.
Self-control: I need to get me some of that. LOL
Thanks for the tips! Hope you have a great Thursday. :)
Excellent tips for D day. Time-outs really work for us. Though I always feel really conscious about it in public, but we must be consistent.
Absolutely love and agree with your 'don't diet' tip.
'Lifestyle changes' are the way to go and a better way to insure that you, actually, change your behavior...in my opinion.
Great post!
Yeah, the diet thing has never panned out for me. And I love that you advise people to follow through, it is the biggest problem when parents don't follow through.
Disciplining and doing it well-- not as an expression of anger, but truly to modify and correct behavior is so difficult! I'm so glad I'm just about past that time of Mommyness.
As for diets... sigh. Don't know what to think of that D word! Fun post again, Tara!
The time-out discipline only works if the kids don't have other things to do in the time-out location (e.g., bedroom still has games, tv, etc that kid can amuse themselves with) This negates any thinking processes about bad behavior.
There has to be some incentive or loss of privilege involved, from my experience.
Dangling the modifiers, the reader is confused. ;-)
No kids, so dodged the bullet there. But your tip of no diets is right on the money. If you don't change your lifestyle permanently, you are wasting your time.
You're so right about the diets! I think I've been guilty of the dangling modifiers a time or two. Hides head in shame...
I occasionally give myself a timeout lol
Wow! Awesome post and what a great blog you have here! Kids are tough to discipline and I have trouble with hanging modifiers sometimes. Thanks for this! Cheers
Continuing to enjoy your tips. Thanks for sharing.
I don't hit the kid...but the gnome, well, that's another story!
Great info, Tara!
I feel like you should make a book of just the editing tips and confused words. That would be great to have.
Heather
I never spanked my kids but I kept your rules in mind. I also reminded myself that the kids are always watching...if I lie...they lie.
May I add one...let the kids choose their own punishment - within reason, of course. I used to ask mine what they felt was an appropriate punishment for the transgression. (They knew better than to pick something stupid.) Most of the time they came up with very good choices and I had less trouble enforcing the sentences they imposed on themselves.
Oh, the diet tip. I can never hear that too often. Thanks for the reminder.
The rest are great, too.
Barbara
D is for: Deadlines
The Daille-y News
Love the helpful post of tips and advice.
Nas
Diet is definitely a four-letter word!
I was spanked as a kid and I turned out just fine. In fact it made me NEVER do whatever I did again :D
I hate diets too! I'm all about lifestyle change though!
I like this post and nodded along. How about fussy eater tips? Like how to deal with the attitude and constant crying of the fussy refusing to eat eater.
I know, man up right!? Looking forward to more posts!!
Discipline is definitely hard sometimes but keeping cool is always important. Funny thing about time-outs, I know it's not working unless my daughter cries about it.
Thanks for the tip on dangling modifiers!
Have fun with a-z.
Self-control - a great tip and a hard one. Follow through is definitely important. If that is forgotten, the correction/discipline doesn't even matter.
Dangling modifiers - a great revision tip I'll be using! :)
I love your discipline tips, I definitely agree with all of them and use similar points to guide how I discipline my daughter :)
~ Rhonda Parrish
That "Lazy Housewife" pic really speaks to me, as does the don't diet advice. I can get behind that one! lol
It's true society lacks discipline and I really like some of your tips. Way to go forward!!
Tara,
Great tips. We do have a lack of discipline today.
Sunni
Time Outs are good and they work well for us :)
Keep Calm and A-Z
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Love Donna K.'s joke. Discipline is essential. And yeah I'm guilty of not following your tip today as well.
Oh Yes. I feel that lack of discipline is a big problem today. If people can't control their children when they are young then they have no hope when they get older.
And by discipline, I mean setting rules and boundaries which are consistent, leading by example and following through with consequences.
You can tell this is a topic close to my heart :)
Just love your tips. :)
One thing about the dieting. I've got a 6 yr old, and even though I've never been a yo yo dieter, there are times when I need to lose a little. And one thing I'll be careful about is not to use the word diet about me or others. I think it's important to phrase it as you kinda said, I need to be healthier.
What moms do impacts you kids, obviously, and if mom is always talking about dieting and losing a few pounds, the young girls are going to start thinking that too. Even when they don't need to.
You hit the nail on the head- I so agree that lack of discipline is the problem. For me, so is follow-through.
Rhonda @Laugh-Quotes.com
AtoZ #42
delighted that you all deem my tips doable!
danka!
I wish more parents shared your view. I see the results of parents striking out of anger everyday at my job and it ain't pretty!
And I agree that the bulk of the problem with negative behaviors nowadays is lack of discipline!
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