Coming to today’s topic it is very difficult to discipline kids. I am pretty sure most of our parents would have yelled or sometimes spanked us, but I never liked it. It just created a fear in my mind more than disciplining me.
When we visited our husband’s brother’s house they told us about this trick to discipline our son. It is called 1-2-3 magic. I should thank my sister-in-law for it. How this method works is
*When your kid does something that is not acceptable you count 1
* If he/she continues to do it count 2
*When he/she does it again count 3 and give him/her a quite time.
Quite time is, you make them sit in some corner of your house, we usually use the steps in our house and make our son sit there.The amount of time you make them sit there is based on age. You can start using this method to discipline your kid when he/she is around 2 years. But if you feel your kid can understand things by 18 months you can start early. Initially when our son was around 18 months we gave a 1 1/2 minute quite time and when he was 2 years old we gave a 2 minute quiet time.
This method has worked like a magic in our house. My son never used to listen to us. But after following this method by the time I count 2 he will stop doing it.The tough part is to make the kids sit in one place. If they dont follow it, tell them you will increase the time or move them to some other room where they have to stay quiet. I feel this method is far better than screaming or spanking your kids. Most important thing is both the parents must be on the same page and the parent who gives the quiet time should explain to the kid about what the kid did and what are the consequences of the action and why he/she should not do it again after the quiet time and give hugs and kisses and release the kid and forget about the issue and move on. One main thing to remember is both parents must give this quiet time and be firm and don’t talk or show emotions when your child throws a tantrum. Please share your thoughts and also some other methods that you use to discipline your kids. I would love to hear them.There is also a book you can read on it to understand more about it. Good night and have a nice weekend.