Disciplining your children is one of the hardest things you’ll ever do as a parent. I know I need help, I’m guessing you do too!
When I married my wife she had a son. I’d been a part of his life since he was two and when we got married he was four. Since then I’ve adopted him as my own but for the first couple of years discipline with him was very sensitive for me. I didn’t really understand how I should approach it. I was his father figure from day one, but I had to earn that respect. I couldn’t just demand it.
The timeline I felt comfortable with for earning such respect was very iffy. I didn’t know when or how I would know that I should be comfortable with what I believed to be the proper method for disciplining him. The problem this created was that my wife had to do the majority of the discipline (she had to be the bad guy). I felt guilty about this but I also didn’t want to create strain on mine and his relationships. It just felt very odd.
There did come a day when I felt comfortable with taking up my part of the disciplining and since that day my son and mine’s relationship has done nothing but grow. I’m sure you’ve heard the old saying, “My parents put the fear of God in me.” This statement is generally followed by something like, “We used to walk to school five miles in the snow, uphill both ways!”
It’s obvious that the times they are a changin’: but what can we do as parents to ensure we teach our kids valuable lessons as well as enforce the standards within our household? I scour the internet quite often trying to find ways to do this (mostly on days when my son is being crazy or I’m irritable and think I’m a terrible parent). This video is one of the best I’ve seen, it’s short, to the point, and gives some great advice.
Raising children is never going to be easy. Teaching another human what to do in order be successful in this world is incredibly subjective, but self-education is generally the rule to becoming better at literally anything you wan to do. The difference with parenting is that we don’t have a ton of time to practice before it’s the real deal. So, learn as much as you can.
Our kids deserve the best parent they can get. It’s up to you to deliver.
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Photo credit: Youtube/Parents Magazine
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