Parenting From The Source

Improving child behavior depends on the child’s learning that there will always be consequences for his or her actions. They either happen naturally or are created by parents to fit the misbehavior.

The young man sat in my high school counseling office. “I’m grounded for the rest of the year,” he moaned. “I won’t even get to enjoy being a senior. What am I going to do?” How Parents Typically Punish Teens As a counselor, I learned a couple of things about how parents punish their kids. [...]

The room was eerily quiet considering that it held over twenty preteens. The young man facing off against me was tall enough to look me straight in the eye when he declared, “You can’t make me.” My teacher training took over, reminding me that confrontations should never take place in front of other students. I [...]

There are three aspects to consider when we want to change the behavior of a rebellious child. Each is equally important and will be addressed separately. 3 Issues Related to Behavior Change Something is causing the child to rebel. There is a definite remedy related to the cause. There must be consistent discipline even while [...]

When no one was watching, Isabella ran her finger around the icing on her sister’s birthday cake. Then, as if she knew she hadn’t done enough damage, she got a spoon and took bites out of the side. She then picked up her doll and sat on the couch to wait for the coming fireworks. [...]

Are you waiting for your child’s moral maturity to develop about the time he or she is eighteen? That’s the age of legal maturity and often physical maturity, so it seems logical that moral maturity would be completed about that same time.

In my last post, I wrote about first-time obedience with older children. I said, “Consequences for disobedience must be delivered every time.” That sounds great, but I hear from parents all the time that they cannot find a punishment that works with their older children. Consequences for disobedience must meet two criteria.

First-time obedience is harder if a child is several years old and accustomed to waiting for his parents to repeat their instructions or correction several times. There were times I let my children slip into the habit of ignoring me the first few times, and it was hard to get back on track.

First time obedience is a sometimes controversial subject, perhaps because it takes discipline on the part of parents to enforce it. Why First-time Obedience Is Important For reasons why it’s important, see my article in the Hale Center Insider.   http://www.sallyandterrywright.com/Story01-31-12_CAROLE_BELL_3REASONS.php. There’s another reason why it’s essential. If children have been trained to respond the first time [...]

A child’s understanding of Father God is shaped by his relationship with his earthly father. If a single mom or relatives are raising a child, this fact may seem discouraging. In my own circumstance, a caring grandfather stepped in to provide a father figure for my children. They still had a relationship with their father, [...]