Discipline Techniques

Posted by Barb Hacker Feb 13, 2008

Parents can be overwhelmed with all the discipline advice available these days. From Super Nanny and her “naughty chair” to unconditional parenting and gentle discipline, there are a myriad of discipline techniques for parents to choose from.

What I have learned by being the mother of three children is that there is no one right discipline method for everyone. Not only does discipline look different in different families, but within a particular family it changes through the years. Different children in the same family also require different methods of discipline.

While one child in a family may respond well to time outs, another child may not. He may need more of a time in, which is similar to a time out, but is spent with the parent. Some children thrive on routine and structure, while others prefer a more flexible schedule.

Parenting experts will tell you the specific merits of their particular method and why that is better than all the rest. Yet, there is no one size fits all discipline technique. As a parent, you learn to pick and choose which methods work best for your family, at that particular time and in that particular situation.

The struggle comes when a parent flip flops between discipline methods and is inconsistent. Deciding to practice unconditional parenting one day, then switching to time outs the next is confusing for a child and won’t solve discipline problems.

The key is to pick a discipline method that you are most comfortable with and try to work from that frame of reference most of the time. However, you need to allow yourself the ability to change and evolve in discipline as your children and their needs change.