In a lot of my parenting consultations I find myself telling the parents that the best way to manage their concerns is to increase love and decrease consequences. This past month a parent ask me to be more specific about what love looks like for children. What did they have to do to choose love over consequences. I thought that maybe all of you would like the answer to this question so here are my answers:
How to Understand the Use of Consequences
Let’s talk about consequences. One of the most frequent questions parents ask me in workshops and consultations is what is the consequence to a child’s challenging behavior. Most ask that question because they have an inappropriate goal. They've been told that the right goal is for your child to feel bad when they're not listening or when they've made a mistake. I want you to wonder: When was the last time that you learned anything while feeling bad?