No. 1 in the series of : ‘How to use positive discipline with your babies and children.’
Some ideas to help you and your baby, toddler and child get along better...
Raising children is hard and probably the most emotionally taxing thing you will do. It is full of joy, fun and satisfactions. But it is also full of hurt, grief and anger often still deep within yourself from your own childhood. No-one only loves their child. We will all have conflicting feelings about our children. Accept and, if you can, process the feelings (but don’t act on them if they are negative).
Positive discipline is not about the moment when your child ‘behaves badly’. It is about creating an environment for yourself and your child where a positive relationship can grow and everyone’s needs are met in the best way possible.
This is very important: Look for times in the day you find most difficult and are more likely to get irritable, overwhelmed and angry. Find ways to make those times less busy when you can focus more on your child’s needs than on other things. This will immediately improve your and your child’s behaviour!
Ways that can help to make sure everyone’s needs are met better:
Establish a routine for YOURSELF early in your baby’s life (but allow it to fit into baby’s needs). Work ‘down times’ into the day for yourself like have a period of rest when baby or toddler sleeps and have ‘tea times’ with your child when everyone sits and has a drink and a small healthy snack.
So get your partner to bring early morning tea and sit together to drink it with baby or toddler. If it is a warm, loving time everyone will relax and enjoy it and it will be a good start to the day.
If baby wakes early the parent who gets the most sleep during the night can take over for an hour to let the parent who had the least sleep have an extra sleep time.
Share the load. We are a social lot and do best when we are supported and support others to do our best.