Raising Children to Be Responsible Adults

There are several ways of disciplining children. It is important to find out which ways work best for your child. Each child is different and what works on one child may not work on another. When finding a way to discipline your child, there are a few things that you should consider. Make sure the (1) discipline is age appropriate. You can’t discipline a two year old the same way you would a sixteen year old. (2) Stand your ground and do not give in. If you tell your child they are grounded for a week, then don’t let them off after two days. And most importantly, choose a (3) creative way to discipline, so that the discipline fits the behavior and that a lesson can be learned from it. Choosing a creative way to discipline a child’s bad behavior is not that hard. My son, who is six years old, has a real problem with cleaning up his room. He has no problem dragging out every last toy he owns and making a mess, but when it comes time to clean up, he cries and whines that there is too much. After this happened several times, I decided I had to do something different. The next time that it was clean up time, he started whining and crying that there was too much again. I gave him a bag and I told him to just pick up the amount he thought was enough. A minute later he came out with about five toys in the bag and told me he was done. I asked him if that was all he was going to clean up, and he said that the rest was too much. I went and grabbed a big garbage bag and cleaned up the rest of the toys. I took the bag out to the garage, and I told my son to go put the five toys that he had in his bag away. He immediately started crying because I took all of his toys away. I told him, if he keeps his room clean, then every week I would give him one toy back. However, if I had to clean his room again, then I would throw everything away. It took a couple of times getting his toys thrown away before he learned that I was serious and that I was going to stand my ground. Also, it