Thy Kingdom Come!
Dear Friends in Christ,
“Honor your Father and your Mother.” (Exodus 20:12)
Basic Tips for disciplining children
1. Do not over-react: the less emotion, the better, and the punishment needs to be proportional to the infraction.
2. United front- mom and dad must be on the same page, and punishments should be discussed in private as a couple before announcing it to the child.
3. Explain why you are punishing them: Make the children understand the gravity of the offense, the long term effect of that behavior, etc…
4. Determine what they most enjoy doing and use that as collateral (cell phones, video games, computer, facebook, ipod, dessert,…)
5. Disrespect can never be tolerated.
6. The punishment should be constructive. Give them a good book to read and summarize, an assignment or a chore so as to make good use of this time.
7. Unconditional love- no matter what happens, they still need to see that you love them.
God bless,
Fr. Michael Sliney, LC