Punishments may not work every time the child misbehaves. Therefore, parents have to follow certain alternatives so that punishments are avoided and misbehavior of kids is under control. Read on to learn about the top 10 alternatives to punishments.Manish always punishes his 6 years old son whenever he misbehaves or does not listen to what the parents are saying. Recently Manish has noticed that his son refuses to accept
punishment and tries to give his own excuses. Manish wants to know if it is right to punish kids or deal with such situations differently.
Why Punishments Should be Avoided
Parents of the recent time have started realizing why is it harmful to punish children whenever they do something wrong. Giving punishment of any kind e.g. hitting, slapping,
spanking etc. create anger in the child and they learn to become violent. Repeated punishments destroy the
self-esteem of a child and lots of negativity comes in the relationship of parents and the children. Let us have a look at the top 10 alternatives to punishments.
1. Show your Love and Care
Parents have to show their love and care so that children understand that they have people who care for them and children feel valued. This will automatically reduce the number of instances when children misbehave.
2. Develop Child-Friendly Environment
It is important for the parents to create environment where children feel comfortable and safe. This will help the child to have proper mental growth and situations would never go out of hands.
3. Avoid Scaring Your Child
How parents behave with their children is an important factor. Parents should never behave in a scary manner otherwise children would find it difficult to open up with their parents.
4. Find out the Underlying Need
Parents are the best people to find out the underlying issue that led to
misbehaviour of the child. May be lunch time is passed and the child is not served food. May be the child did not have enough snacks after coming back from school. If these underlying needs can be fulfilled, child will stop misbehaving and parents need not have to punish them.
5. Be Empathetic With the Children
Children may show illogical behaviour but experiences that parents have with them should be helpful enough to make the children understand that they are not behaving logically and why they should stop doing so.
6. Be in Their Shoes and Judge
Parents will obviously look at the particular situation with their point of view but that will not solve the problem rather worsen it. Parents must put themselves into the shoes of their children and then judge why the children are behaving in wrong manner. May be that helps the parents to address the right issue and deal with children in a better manner.
7. Practice Self Control
Self Control in Parents is very much important for bringing a situation under control. There are situations when parents feel there blood is boiling but there is no alternative but to keep cool and think rationally rather than announcing a punishment for the child.
8. Set an Example
Only when children find their parents behaving in a logical manner and keep their calmness and cool they will learn the same. Parents set examples for their kids and kids will get positive attitude automatically if their parents have that.
9. Try to be Proactive
If parents are proactive then situations for giving punishments would never arise. Initially when the kid has started misbehaving parents should intervene and talk to the child to find out what is the trigger. This will resolve the problem even before it is taking shape.
10. Shift the Focus
When the child is not listening to the parents, shifting the focus to something else is an ideal solution. Toddlers can be offered crayons, toys, candies so that they shift their mind to something else. Parents can take kids for a walk, playing board game or even ice cream treat to take their mind away from the current situation.
Giving punishments are not the only way to teach right behaviour to the children rather parents must follow the alternatives to punishment. Alternatives to punishments will help the children to learn in positive manner and they will start realizing the mistakes they are making.
Is it necessary to punish children? What are the alternatives to punishments? How can punishments be avoided? Discuss here.
