Discipline = Teach

I have been reading a very interesting book lately on positive disciplining strategies. The book is called Discipline without Distress by Judy Arnall - it is a LLL approved book for better parenting and is amazing. I am so impressed with the information that my mom has gotten the book for herself and my brother.

With an 18 month old and a 5 1/2 year old my parenting skills were definitely being challenged too much - I had to do something since time-outs, yelling, getting frustrated, etc. were definitely not working. This book has been the answer and after a couple of weeks of using a new approach I am seeing results. Before J hardly hugged me or kissed me - now all the time and all of our stress levels have come down.

Anyways the keys in this book give tools for raising caring, responsible children who can communicate and validate feelings without time-outs, spanking, punishment, or bribery. So, far I have learned how important parent maintenance time-outs are - so, now every Sunday I get two hours to myself - and Doug gets two hours to himself. This last weekend I went shopping and then to a coffee house and read - bliss. I have also learned how important it is to give our children the power of communication and validate feelings and work on active listening. Children go through so many different developmental stages and their cognitive development is staged and I have put too high of expectations on my children when they are developmentally not ready yet. I have learned that my children are not doing the the things they are to defy me or being naughty for me - it is just their stage. I have also learned how important the positive is - encouraging more than praising and to say no differently. If our children only hear no and don't get any positives it is very hard for them to be successful. Also, we are her to teach, model and mentor our children into the adults we want them to be. I could go on and on, but I have other things to get to this napternoon:)

Thanks for reading - take the time to check out some positive discipline resources or child development and enlighten yourself today! You will be a better mentor for your and our children I guarantee:)