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For those of us who have been presented with the privilege and challenge of working from home with our kids amidst this pandemic, times have been especially trying — especially now that the weather has grown colder and the days have grown longer. The allure of working and learning remotely has grown stale and your kids may be trying your patience more than ever since the cold weather is likely limiting their time outdoors, leaving them with more pent-up energy than they have during warmer months. The struggle is mad real and thus, you may find yourself raising your voice a lot more often — even though you’ve always vowed that you’d never be one of those parents.
Truthfully, this pandemic is trying our patience in more ways than one so there’s a good chance that your patience is even shorter than usual, which means you may be going to bed feeling guilty a lot more frequently as a result of all of the times you lost your cool that day. After several weeks of this, you’ve probably come to realize that yelling is highly ineffective when it comes to getting kids to do what you want them to.
So if you’re tired of raising your voice and your blood pressure, here are 10 ways to instill discipline in your kids that don’t include yelling.
A rewards system
When we think of discipline, we have a tendency to harp on consequences for misbehavior; however, the truth of the matter is that the best behavior management techniques are preventative. Instead of focusing on being punitive, which is actually a reaction to misbehavior, you’ll want to be proactive and attempt to prevent misbehavior in the first place. One great way to do this is by creating a rewards system through which your kids receive points of some sort when they demonstrate desired behavior. When they accumulate a certain number of points, reward them.
