Toddlers Corner: How to Discipline your Toddler

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[media-credit name=”motherhoodinstyle.net” align=”alignnone” width=”500″][/media-credit]Children are special gifts from God to us, and like I always say we are their custodians on earth. So how they end up in life is mostly about how much effort we put in bringing them up.

Toddlers are known to be attention seekers and can most times be a handful; they make tantrums at the slightest opportunities given to them, most times just to get the attention of a parent, sibling or friend. Therefore it is very important for parents to know when and how to draw the line.

Discipline in this article is not about beating, issuing punishment or shouting down the house for your toddler, discipline is about setting rules and making sure your toddler stops behaviors that are not comfortable with you.

For example: if your toddler always bits your hands, you ensure he stops that habit by either scolding them, or by giving him a little spank on the bum whenever he does that, so he knows it is a wrong thing to do.

8 Ways to discipline your toddler:

• Be a good example: parents are the first role models of their kids; they watch and emulate the actions of those around them, so in order to bring them up properly you need to lead by example.
• Let your “NO” be “NO”
• Understand your child: understanding your child, goes a long way in discipline, because at every point in time you can tell what your child wants. You can tell if he is hungry, wet, tired, or just craving for attention. This eases stress at your end, because you do not have to crack your brain thinking of solutions, you already know what he wants.
• Create distractions when necessary: toddler’s have short attention span, so if your toddler is doing something you don’t want him to do, you can refocus his attention on something else by showing him an object to distract him from what he was doing earlier.
• Turn a blind eye to some of his activities: this does not mean you loose sight of your toddler. What this simply means is that if your toddler is crying just to get noticed, you act as though your busy. Always running to them, carrying them when they cry makes them do it repeatedly.
• Do not ignore the signs: some parents are of the notion “he is a child, leave him, he would change”. This is wrong, if your toddler does something you do not like, it is better you stop him else he would go outside and do same.
• Be patient with your toddler, you do not expect him to change overnight. Change is a gradual process.
• Do not be too hard on your toddlers, this would scare them away from you.

Remember the saying: Train up a child in the way he should grow, and when he grows he will not depart from it.