Ever looked for a book on how to best discipline your children? There is certainly no shortage of them, and each one seems to offer different advice.
But remember that you know your child better than anyone else.
Every child has their own way of learning.
Even children raised in the same household are likely to have different ways of learning to improve their behavior.
It is best to consider the advice of experts, but apply their guidance to the needs of your individual child.
Have you ever wondered why time outs worked for one of your children but not for the other? Perhaps it would be better not to force one method of discipline on a child simply because it worked on their sibling.
One of my friends tried every method she could find to stop a child from biting.
As she switched from method to method, she frustrated both herself and her child, but nothing worked.
She needed to truly understand what motivated her individual child before any of these methods could be truly effective.
Discipline is sometimes necessary to teach children about consequences.
Even as adults, there will be consequences for broken rules, so it's best to teach them now.
It is never appropriate to use discipline that is harmful to the child.
Acts of harm teach anger, they do not teach life tools.
Try to keep the discipline to something that actually teaches consequences for the behavior.
For example, will sitting in a corner while you clean marker off a wall really teach them how hard it is to get marker off of a wall? Having the child clean the wall is a more appropriate punishment, because the consequence is directly related to the behavior.
Discovering the most appropriate disciplinary technique for your child is not always easy.
But with patience and observation, you'll get there, and raised a child who understands consequence.