How Your Parenting Style Affects Toddler Discipline
When you're thinking about toddler discipline and parenting styles, it's important for you and your partner is to agree on the kind of people you want your children to be when they grow up. For example, picture your kids at 25 years old ... how important is it to each of you that your kids use good manners? That they are respectful of others and other people's boundaries? Self-disciplined? Without agreement on these and other issues, it will be extremely hard to share the responsibilities of discipline and share in the fun of spending time with your kids.
Once you have a better idea of how you want your toddlers to be as adults, then you can consider how your daily actions will help or hinder their development. Too much discipline without any fun can lead to problems just as easily as too much fun without discipline.
Each of us learns about parenting and toddler discipline from our own parents; if they made mistakes, this can have its disadvantages. But if we can agree purposefully on what kind of people we want our children to be, then it becomes easier to see how our actions affect our children. You can do this by sitting down and planning what I call your "Guiding Principles of Parenting." This involves creating a list of attributes that you eventually want your child to have (such as showing respect for others' time), defining good and bad behaviors associated with that trait (like being on time for family functions, dinner, and other events), the positive or negative consequences for each behavior, and choosing your discipline and parenting styles based on those principles.
One last point: It will be very helpful to think about the kind of relationship each of you wants with your children once they are adults. When youre dealing with a toddler, discipline is extremely important, but so is developing a strong bond and establishing special connections that will last a lifetime.
Once you have a better idea of how you want your toddlers to be as adults, then you can consider how your daily actions will help or hinder their development. Too much discipline without any fun can lead to problems just as easily as too much fun without discipline.
Each of us learns about parenting and toddler discipline from our own parents; if they made mistakes, this can have its disadvantages. But if we can agree purposefully on what kind of people we want our children to be, then it becomes easier to see how our actions affect our children. You can do this by sitting down and planning what I call your "Guiding Principles of Parenting." This involves creating a list of attributes that you eventually want your child to have (such as showing respect for others' time), defining good and bad behaviors associated with that trait (like being on time for family functions, dinner, and other events), the positive or negative consequences for each behavior, and choosing your discipline and parenting styles based on those principles.
One last point: It will be very helpful to think about the kind of relationship each of you wants with your children once they are adults. When youre dealing with a toddler, discipline is extremely important, but so is developing a strong bond and establishing special connections that will last a lifetime.
Answered by
Jeremy G. Schneider
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