With the entire family staying together indoors during the lock down period, you can control the children form going outdoors but you cannot control their activities indoors. Children will be children and are bundles of energy and will continue to burn their calories inside the house doing what they want to do. This may try your patience, and often add to your anger and irritation. On many occasions you may think the best way would be to punish them and put an end to their mischief, but is that the only way and more importantly is that the right solution? Let us debate this a bit more.
It has been observed by experts that spanking and enforcing time outs and reprimanding do not work most of the times in disciplining your child, on the contrary it makes them rebellious. The best method would be as a time tested approach to behave with them exactly the way you would want them to behave with you. This may be difficult in most cases but here are a few tips to help you out:
It is important to first try and regulate your own emotions. If you are very angry just try to calm down and settle down for a while before dealing with your child. This will give you ample cooling time and reflecting time. You will then be able to talk to your child and explain what they did wrong. We must keep in mind that children learn from their parents. Their minds are impressionable and we must teach them the right things at a young age so that they grow up into good and responsible adults.
The next important step is to empathize and understand their mind set and try and behave according to what will work as a corrective measure for them if you were in the same situation.
The last and most important step is to connect. It has been observed that children behave inappropriately most of the times because of poor connection with their parents who do not have the time to listen to them and participate in their day to day lives.
With the current lock down situation this could well prove to be a boon for parents who always hid behind the excuse of having no time to be with their children.
This lock down period could be the ideal time to help you regulate your emotions, empathize and connect with your children. So go ahead and make the most of it!
