Easy To Love, Difficult To Discipline: The 7 Basic Skills For Turning Conflict
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About this ebook
Learn how to stop policing and pleading and become the parent you want to be!
Dr. Becky Bailey's powerful approach to parenting has made thousands of families happier and healthier. Focusing on self-control and confidence-building for both parent and child, Dr. Bailey teaches a series of linked skills to help families move from turmoil to tranquility: 7 Powers for Self-Control to help parents model the behavior they want their kids to follow. These lead to:
- 7 Basic Discipline Skills to help children manage sticky situations at home and at school, which will help your children develop
- 7 Values for Living, such as Integrity, Respect, Compassion, and Responsibility
Dr. Bailey integrates these principles into a seven-week program that approaches discipline from a radically new perspective, offering plenty of real-life anecdotes that illustrate her methods at work. With this inspiring and practical book in hand, you'll find new ways of understanding and improving children's behavior, as well as your own.
Contains clear, actionable steps to establish a new and effective discipline style.
Your two kids are bickering in the back seat—sniping turns to screeching and seat belts are yanked off as big brother lunges for little sister. You're at your wits' end, but you remember Becky Bailey's advice about the Power of Perception: No one can make you angry without your permission. Whoever is in charge of your feelings is in charge of you.
Instead of yelling a vague, "Don't make me have to stop this car!" you clearly state, "I feel overwhelmed with all this noise in the car. You may not take off your seat belts or hit each other. I'm going to pull over until you put your seat belts on." You've just used the Discipline Skill of Composure: living the values you want your child to develop. The Value you're modeling is Integrity: how to be in charge of our own feelings and actions. Kids with integrity take ownership of their own mistakes, don't cave in to peer pressure, and go through life with their heads on straight and hearts intact.
This book contains dozens of down-to-earth anecdotes and scenarios that illustrate how to put your new discipline skills into action, and a seven-week program to get parents off to a quick start. The results far exceed most parents' dreams.
Becky A. Bailey
Becky A. Bailey, Ph.D., specializes in early childhood education and developmental psychology. Her lectures reach more than 20,000 people annually, and her awards include a Parents' Choice Foundation commendation for three of her parenting audiotapes. She has appeared on CNN, PBS, and The Hour of Power with Dr. Robert Schuller, among other programs. She lives in Oviedo, Florida.
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Reviews for Easy To Love, Difficult To Discipline
9 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is an amazing book. It is easy to read and has changed my whole way of disciplining my child through love and empathy and realising there’s so many opportunities for teaching.
I recommend this book to parents, teachers and anyone who deals with children.
I will be referring to this book again and again for reference.
Thank you Becky - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I finished a few days ago what will be a life changing book in this house. The book called - Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline by Becky A. Bailey (also from the list of books I got from Soulemama.com) has to be one of the first parenting books dealing with disciplining that has spoken to me in such deep and profound ways.Now, I also have to tell you, prior to this book I pretty much wrote off all parenting books (and yes, I did just write about a parenting book that I also thought was a good read - but that felt different because it wasn't a book about the day to day grind and trying to discipline your kids, ya know?). Anyway, I have read a few parenting books in my day, I have tried them out (after hearing other rave about them) and they have not worked for me, in my house, with my kids. And I had given up on all of them. Life, clearly was not that easy and I needed to forge my own path with my kids and do what felt right for us.With my girls, that was easy. Probably too easy - and that should have been my clue. Don't have any more kids. Cause you can't get three easy kids, I had already used up the easy genes LOL! And so I walked around thinking I was a great parent. And then came my son. I often joke that I thought I was too good of a parent and God sent him to me to humble me.And humble me he did. He threw tantrums I had only heard about before. He whined more than I thought one child was capable of doing. Once he had his mind on doing something, there was nothing you could do. Redirect? Ha! That was a joke. He gave up napping at 9 months old. He was my hardest to get to go to sleep without crying and whining. He has broken every. single. rule. Multiple times. He hits. He throws. He kicks. He takes. He grabs. He fights. He is a difficult child to say the leastNow, allow me for one moment to also tell you - he laughs more than other child I have known. He cuddles with me. He kisses. He hugs. He loves. He giggles. He reads with me. He idolizes his sisters. He worships his dad. And he loves me to pieces. I tell you this, because I feel it's only fair to show you both sides of him and not just the struggles we have had, because as much as he sometimes makes me want to run away screaming to not have to deal with another tantrum, he is at heart a kind and loving child. I just wish that side of him was the only one I have to deal with!Anyway, back to the book. I started it. I admit at the beginning I laughed. I thought no way. This is too complicated. No one can do all of this! And this lady has really great ideas but they seem so impractical! But I kept reading (perhaps out of desperation) and it started to speak to me some more and then a little more. And a couple of days ago I needed to get my son to do something - and I knew it would turn into a power struggle, so I decided to give the ideas a whirl. And it worked. Just like that. It worked. My chin hit the floor and I was speechless. And we tried it again. And it worked. And then something else happened that made me try something else in the book. And it worked. And so we've been trying these ideas out with a lot of success.This does mean he doesn't melt down. Or that I have stopped yelling. Because people, he's three. And so he's going to melt down. And I'm high strung and too easily upset. So when he doesn't listen I still yell. We are not perfect in this house, but you know what, it is helping. There is a bit more peace here. And I'm so grateful for that. Because most of my parenting energy went right to him and I always fear that someday my girls will say I spent all my time on him and they didn't get enough. This is getting better by the day though.I've now devoured the entire book and it all clicked in my head. I get it all. I want to go back and reread it all. It's got a lot to it. And she says read it slowly to practice - I don't have that luxury - it's a library book. I do believe we will buy it though - it speaks that much to me. But it really does make sense and can I just say the author includes times where she hasn't done it so well and mistakes she has made, which I love. I hate reading books from people who say things like "this always works. And once you do this you'll always have great, grand times." And that irks me so much I can't read the book. Not so with this book. She mentions a couple times, kids are kids, and they will misbehave - even the most perfect child will misbehave. That's what kids do. And parents will make mistakes. Even the most perfect ones will. And I'm telling you, that right there is so helpful to read from an expert. And I really got the message that I needed to accept what was happening as it was and not wistfully wish for something else (mostly perfection and happy, well-behaved, polite, intelligent children at all times traipsing around life with a happy, calm, peaceful mother!).Anyway, I'm now at the point where I wish I had read this book much sooner in life (although husband and I did discuss that even if I had read a year or two or more ago it might not have spoke to me then. Something interesting to ponder I think) and I believe in it. And I've been using some things with the girls too.I know this is already long, but to give you an idea of the book and what she discusses, she constantly comes back to parents can't teach what they don't know. If you want your kids to be disciplined, you have to be disciplined, etc. etc. She talks about how time-outs and reasoning are used often as disciplining children but parents forget to teach the correct behavior. Her example of this is great and to sum it she says imagine you fill out a form at work. The boss calls you in his office and says, you have filled this form our wrong. Go to the lounge and think about your actions for 10 minutes and then you can come out again when you are done. So you go and think about it and come out. The next day you have to fill the form out again, you still don't know how to do it, so you get in trouble again. It really got me to think about the teaching part of discipline ... no, you have to say you filled it out wrong. Come here so I can show the correct way to fill this out. And even after being shown it once, you might need to be reminded of a few things a few more times. She also talks about choices. Because we parents are so good at giving choices. She also talks about real choices and fake choices. Apparently I've been using fake choices, as in "You may clean your toys or go sit in your room." See, that's a fake choice because one is clearly bad, so it's not really a choice. Who knew, this whole time I was giving fake choices. No, use real choices You may pick up your legos first or your books first. The child can't choose not to pick up, but does get a choice and a say in what he is doing. Brilliant (this is the one I've used the most so far because it's the easiest to incorporate in my opinion). She also talks about being vague - giving a command like be nice. That's vague. A toddler doens't know what that means, so be concrete.Okay, if you've read this far - bless you. If you are struggling with getting kids to listen, to tame whining, to make your house more peaceful, I so completely recommend this book. But, I also recommend you get it from the library or borrow it from someone. Because as much as this book spoke to me, it might not speak to you (cause I've been there too!). But, I hope and pray if you are struggling with these issues, that this book does speak to you, because then reading it and beginning to use it will help your day run more smoothly I believe!
3 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A great book with lots of great, practical advice. It was sometimes hard to get through, but well worth it in the end. I see this as a book that I'll be coming back to again as we progress through the stages of childhood.
1 person found this helpful
Book preview
Easy To Love, Difficult To Discipline - Becky A. Bailey
1
From Willful to Willing
A wonderful woman who lived in a shoe
Had so many children,
And she knew exactly what to do.
She held them,
She rocked them,
She tucked them in bed,
"I love you, I love you"
Is what she said.
Have you ever thought, I have tried everything possible to get my child to get dressed (or do his homework, or clean his room) and then sadly said to yourself, I give up
? Have you ever punished your child and later felt guilty for having behaved in a way that you swore you never would? Have you ever promised yourself to exercise regularly, eat better, or spend more time with loved ones, but found that the promises you made to yourself are difficult to keep? Have you then given up, or felt guilty?
I wrote this book to help you permanently change your own behavior, because only by learning to discipline yourself will you be able to successfully guide your children’s behavior. I will show why achieving self-control and self-discipline allows you to know exactly what to do in order to discipline your children.1
If I asked you to teach a class in nuclear physics, could you do it? Probably not. Could you teach your child how to pole-vault? Again, probably not. You cannot teach what you do not know.
Yet we often demand that children acquire skills that we ourselves lack. We ask children to do as we say, not as we do. Parents yell, Go to your room until you are in control of yourself.
A mother grabs a toy that two preschoolers are tussling over and says, You know better than to grab toys from your friends. It’s mine now!
Husbands and wives battle with each other, using attack skills such as name-calling and withdrawal. Then they demand that their children resolve conflicts calmly, by discussing them. Our own emotional intelligence is primitive at best, and whether we admit it or not, we pass our emotional clumsiness on to our children.
For most of us, being consistently in control of ourselves represents a major change. So this book is about change: It’s about learning to change your own behavior, and your children’s behavior, so that you can grow closer, embrace and resolve conflict, and enjoy life. Once you model self-control for your children, they will show better self-control than you have ever imagined they could achieve. Delightful surprises await you.
Once you model self-control for your children, they will show better self-control than you have ever imagined they could achieve.
Imagine telling your child one time to take a shower—and him actually marching off to do it! Imagine promising yourself to either conquer your clutter, or to relax about it—and then keeping your promise. This book will help you realize these possibilities and many, many others.
Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline can help you become the person you want your child to emulate. It will take your self-discipline and child-rearing skills to new levels. You will learn how to move beyond policing your children with rules and consequences, and discover how to create a home in which healthy relationships flourish and your children voluntarily choose to cooperate.
Sounds impossible? The revised Mother Goose nursery rhyme at the start of this chapter contains all the needed ingredients. If you want your children to change, you must begin by becoming a wonderfully loving adult. You must focus on what you want to have happen instead of what you don’t want. You must rely on love, not fear, to motivate yourself and your children. When you learn to love yourself, you will be ready to teach your children to love themselves and one another.
This is a radically different approach from the one summarized in the original rhyme, which goes like this:
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,
She had so many children
She didn’t know what to do.
She gave them some broth
Without any bread;
She whipped them all soundly
And put them to bed.
Have you ever manipulated your child with food like Mother Goose did? (If you behave while I shop, I’ll take you to McDonald’s.
) Have you ever, in desperation, spanked your child? Unsure of how to proceed, have you sent your child to his room, or put him in time out
? How often have you felt like the tired old woman
(or a tired old dad) after surviving a day with your children, fighting battle after battle? The house really can feel as cramped as a shoe with laces tied too tightly.
How would tomorrow feel if you did know what to do? When your children tormented one another, you would be able to teach them how to resolve their conflicts, rather than resorting to playing bad cop.
When your children refused to clean up, you would know how to help them move past resistance and toward cooperation, rather than turning to nagging, punishment, or doing the task yourself. When your children lost control, you would know how to help them calm down and reorganize themselves, rather than out-shouting them. Imagine knowing exactly what to do!
TIMES HAVE CHANGED AND SO MUST WE
When it comes to describing our social situation, Times have changed
is an understatement. There have been many shifts in our society, yet none so profound as the shift from roles to relationships. Building steam in the late fifties, society began to enter bold new territory. Collectively, we decided that the roles of the past were too limiting. The roles of husband and wife had been explicitly defined. The role of child (to be seen and not heard) and the role of parent (as boss) had been clearly articulated. Relationships were based on these prescribed roles. As long as everyone performed their ordained duties, all was well. Yet in the comfort and safety of these roles, we felt something missing, especially in the case of those who were relegated to the subservient roles. The powerless group (women, people of color, people with disabilities, children) rebelled. Consciousness expanded and people boldly demanded more. We wanted relationships, companions, and closeness based on equality of worth rather than on hierarchical, prescribed roles demarcating the powerful from the powerless. Sadly, however, we did not have the relationship skills or social competence to make these new relationships work. Divorce rates skyrocketed. Businesses instituted shakeups in search of employees who could take more initiative and who had the necessary people skills. Children became demanding, and parents felt at a loss as to how to respond. We placed ourselves on new ground. As we continue to seek meaningful relationships with one another, we must also learn the skills of interaction that promote respect. We must obtain new tools for new times. Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline is a skill-based book to help parents build respectful relationships with themselves, with each other, and with their children.
All parents demonstrate or model a code of conduct and a value system. This is done through their day-to-day interactions with others. Until we become conscious of these patterns of interaction, we will not be able to guide the morality of the next generation. Most of us model respect when we are calm and when life is going our way. However, what happens to our values when we are stressed and life becomes complicated? How do we behave when traffic is backed up, when our children forget their permission slips, when our spouse fails to stop by the grocery store again, or when our mother-in-law keeps harping about our parenting choices? What happens to treating each other with respect during these times?
Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline relates to us all. Every one of us at times is easy to love, and every one of us at times is difficult to live with. It is easy to love our children when they do what we ask, when we ask. It is easy to love our spouses and partners when we agree on how to raise the children. It is easy to love ourselves when we live up to our personal expectations. This book is about the other times. The times when life does not go as we had planned. When others don’t act as we had hoped. And when our own actions are not something we want to write home about.
Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline presents a framework of discipline called loving guidance. This framework is built on the premise that how we perceive a situation dictates the actions we will take. In order to change behavior, we must focus on our perceptions as well as on our actions. Loving guidance imbues parents with the Seven Powers for Self-Control. These powers are perceptual skills that enable you to become proactive rather than reactive in conflict moments, allowing you to stay in control of yourself and in charge of children.
Self-control must be the first priority of all parents. Self-control is not pretending to be calm in difficult moments. It is the ability to reach out and empathize with others, to accept and celebrate differences, to communicate feelings directly, to resolve conflicts in constructive ways, and to enjoy feeling close and connected to others. It is the ability to embrace conflict as a teaching opportunity rather than viewing it as a disruption. The Seven Powers for Self-Control are ways of perceiving and thinking. If we adopt these ways of seeing difficult times, we remain self-disciplined enough to begin the process of disciplining others. Each of the Seven Powers has a slogan to help you remember to use that particular power in times of conflict. The Seven Powers for Self-Control and the slogans that support them are as follows:
The Power of Perception: No one can make you angry without your permission.
The Power of Attention: What you focus on, you get more of.
The Power of Free Will: The only person you can make change is yourself.
The Power of Unity: Focus on connecting instead of trying to be special.
The Power of Love: See the best in one another.
The Power of Acceptance: This moment is as it is.
The Power of Intention: Conflict is an opportunity to teach.
From these Seven Powers for Self-Control emerge the Seven Basic Discipline Skills. These are the only skills you need to constructively respond to any difficult moment. Parents who draw upon the Seven Powers for Self-Control and use the Seven Basic Discipline Skills create a home that models the Seven Values for Living. This will happen automatically. As parents change their attitudes and behaviors, so will their children. Each of the Seven Basic Discipline Skills has a slogan to help remind you what you can expect from using the skill. Listed below are the slogans and the values that you will be modeling and teaching your children.
Composure: Living the values you want your child to develop. This teaches integrity.
Encouragement: Honoring children so they will honor you. This teaches interdependence.
Assertiveness: Saying no and being heard. This teaches respect.
Choices: Building self-esteem and willpower. This teaches commitment.
Positive Intent: Turning resistance into cooperation. This teaches cooperation.
Empathy: Handling the fussing and the fits. This teaches compassion.
Consequences: Helping children learn from their mistakes. This teaches responsibility.
TO DISCIPLINE AND TO TEACH ARE THE SAME ACTS
This book is about parents teaching their children how to behave, not about parents controlling their children’s behavior. Discipline situations with children occur over conflicting needs. The conflict may be between adults and children, or between children. You actually teach your child to resolve his own conflicts with the corrective discipline tools that you use. Your discipline tools evolve into the interpersonal skills your children adopt and then carry with them into all their future relationships. When you look at discipline in this way, you can see that your guidance system involves much larger issues than getting your children to finish their chores or go to bed on time. Your approach to discipline demonstrates conflict resolution for your children, and it teaches them how to get their needs met for the rest of their lives.
Through discipline, you teach your children how to resolve the conflicting needs of different people.
Adults are wracked by conflicts. These conflicts can be within ourselves, with a spouse, or between neighbors or countries. The divorce rate today is about 50 percent. In the twentieth century, warfare has claimed 150 million human lives. The United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that in the last decade alone, wars have killed 1 million children, disabled 5 million others, and left 12 million children homeless. Clearly, people need a better way to resolve conflicts.
LOVING GUIDANCE: THE BETTER WAY
Historically, when a child’s needs collided with an adult’s needs, the needs of the adult took clear precedence. Parents considered any strategy that made the child give up his own needs a success. Parents maintained discipline by negating their child’s needs, usually through some form of coercion. In sum, powerful adults dominated powerless children.
Recently, the trend has reversed. Powerful, strident children seem to dominate powerless adults. Parents who know that they do not want to repeat the patterns that governed their childhoods, but lack a better approach, have simply flipped the equation. They have negated their own needs and let the children rule.
There is a better way. It moves beyond issues of control, or power. When you use loving guidance, you teach your child to meet his needs in a socially acceptable manner without either denigrating himself or attempting to dominate others. Socially acceptable
means that the self-respect and safety of everyone involved is preserved. Loving guidance empowers you and your child, instead of pitting you against each other. It strengthens your entire family.
Teaching is about giving. Control is about getting.
To teach your child to respect limits, you need three essential ingredients. First, you need the Seven Powers for Self-Control, to change how you perceive a conflict situation. Second, you need the Seven Basic Discipline Skills, to change how you respond to the conflict. Third, you need to understand how children develop. With these three ingredients, you can respond calmly to any challenges your children offer. You will learn and practice them in the chapters that follow.
Teaching is about giving, while control is about getting. Earlier methods of discipline suffered from a lack of emphasis upon teaching. By learning the methods of loving guidance, you will discover how both you and your child can get your needs met in a socially acceptable fashion.
WHAT ARE YOU TEACHING?
I have been teaching for twenty-five years. I have taught children of all ages, and I have taught adults in parenting classes, at universities, and through my work with families in crisis. Teaching has led me to far-flung places, and introduced me to people of many cultures.
Ida, a medicine woman with whom I worked in New Mexico, taught me a profound lesson. Ida used the words learning
and teaching
interchangeably. At first, I thought she spoke English poorly, but eventually I came to realize that her synonymous use of these words contained great wisdom. Ida taught me that we fool ourselves when we pretend that learning and teaching are separate activities, with the teacher giving something to the learner, and nothing to himself or herself. Moreover, we have mistakenly treated teaching as a special activity that we do only at designated times. I’ve found that teaching and learning occur continually, and that teaching is a constant process for everyone, not just for those whom we call teachers
or students.
I have come to realize that whatever I teach, I learn. At every moment, you teach other people and reinforce in yourself your sense of who you are, and what other people mean to you. Teaching and learning are actually the same.
If you scream at the driver who cuts you off in traffic, you teach that you are better and wiser than the other driver, and that inferior
people deserve no respect. You teach that judging others as adequate or inadequate is your role, and that people who make mistakes must be condemned. Think of the many lessons we teach our children as we interact with life. You can teach them to fear, hate, and struggle against things that don’t go their way. Or, you can teach them to be open to life, with all its mystery and unpredictability. You can decide to teach your children to treat other people with love, respect, and trust even when things do not go the way they should.
Your methods of discipline impart these lessons, because the need for discipline arises at times of conflict, and conflict arises when life refuses to go as you had planned.
THE JOURNEY FROM FEAR TO LOVE
This book will take you on a journey from fear to love. Nothing holds more power than love, yet love has been neglected as an element of discipline, and many hurtful things have been done in its name. I define love as an action that has the following four results:
1. Love increases security and provides safety. You might bark at your child, Get over here or you’ll get lost!
But wouldn’t it feel better to say something like, Stay close to me in the store so I can keep you safe. If something happened to you, I would be sad. I love having you with me.
Fear separates, love unites.
2. Love travels from the worthy to the worthy. When we feel good about ourselves, we tend to focus on the beauty in our own lives and the goodness of others. When we feel bad about ourselves, we tend to criticize and judge others. If you want to teach your child, rather than blame him, for problems that arise, you must first rediscover and accept your own worth. To extend love to others, you must love yourself. Fear judges, love enjoys.
3. Love looks for the highest and best in people and situations. Imagine that you are having lunch with your child in a restaurant and your waitress has bungled your order. Instead of saying, She is totally clueless, and ought to lose her job,
give her a break. Say, We all have off days. Let’s help her by giving smiles and kind words.
Fear focuses on what is missing; love sees the best of what is.
4. Love accepts what is. Fear looks to blame because things are not going as they should.
Love looks for solutions as it accepts what is. Instead of shouting, Should the newspapers be spread all over?
calmly say, Put the papers in the recycling bin.
Fear looks for blame, love seeks solutions.
Loving guidance is based on these definitions of love. Its goal is to teach children to express themselves honestly while acting responsibly within a safe environment. The times that problems arise are when children feel entitled to express themselves freely, but do not temper this freedom with a sense of responsibility, or when children grow up feeling responsible for everyone and everything, squelching their own desires in a constant, hopeless search for approval. You can raise children who feel both free and responsible, but in order to do this, you must first feel free and responsible yourself. You cannot teach skills you do not possess.
There is a way to raise children to be both free and responsible.
THE PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL COST OF RELYING ON FEAR
The journey from fear to love will both fascinate and challenge you. Most of our own parents relied on fear-based discipline. As children, we feared punishment. (Clean this mess up now, or else!
) We feared the loss of their love. (If you act that way, you’ll be sent to your room.
) We feared that we were not good enough. (I work hard to keep this house neat. Why can’t you do your part? All I ask for is a little assistance. Is that so much?
) The worst fear instilled was the fear of abandonment. (If you are not ready when I count to ten, I’m leaving without you. One. Two…. I mean it!
)
Raised on fear, we now rely on fear with our own children. The use of fear may be blatant, as in the above examples, or it may be more subtle.
Several so-called modern approaches to discipline still rely on fear. One such approach is the use of rewards and punishments. (If you behave, I will buy you a candy bar,
or, If you don’t clean that room, there will be no Little League practice for you.
) Children fear being deprived of treats or missing cherished activities.
Reasoning with children is another modern
discipline method that is actually rooted in fear. Parents probe their children with questions such as, Why did you hit her? Was that nice?
or, How would you feel if I hit you?
These questions imply that the child is mean or stupid, and can leave him fearing that he is a failure. Parents often ask their children to resolve conflicts without teaching them how to do so. (Talk to each other and work it out. If I have to get involved, you will both be sorry.
) Children reasonably fear being unable to find solutions because they lack the social skills needed to work it out.
Fear-based discipline focuses both you and your child on what was not done or on what was handled the wrong way. Fear-based tactics can be loud (Do you call this room clean?
), or soft-spoken (Come on, honey, remember to finish what you start
). When you constantly focus on what your child has done wrong, you highlight his imperfections and they come to take an exaggerated place in your child’s self-concept. The result is children who grow up to feel they are not good enough.
Every adult I know battles with his or her own worth in some way. Some adults become arrogant, trying to prove their worth to others. Some overachieve, while others underachieve. Many adults eat or drink to excess, and some push their children to excel in order to overcome their own sense of failure.
When you rely on fear-based discipline, you trigger physical stress responses in your child that hamper his ability to learn from you. When your child experiences stress, stress hormones are released. One of the chemicals released is called cortisol. High cortisol levels can damage brain cells in an area called the hippocampus, which plays a major role in memory and learning. You want your child to understand and remember the lessons you try to teach, yet how often have you heard him say, I don’t know,
or I forgot
? When you rely on fear, you impede the hippocampus and actually derail your discipline goals. Research has shown that fear-based discipline actually fosters the behaviors that parents are trying to eliminate. Such strategies teach children to be more resistant to parental authority and may alter their brain chemistry for life. Nature provides the construction materials to build the human brain and nurture serves as the architect that designs it.
Your interactions with your children literally shape their brains.
It’s likely that fear tactics were programmed into you during your childhood. Unless you become conscious of how subtle and manipulative fear can be, you will unconsciously teach your children to feel they are not good enough.
When you instill feelings of powerlessness in your children, their relationships with you and others inevitably become riddled with power struggles.
Love’s goal is to develop healthy relationships which naturally inspire cooperation. With these relationships in place, children are more likely to choose to improve their behavior and are more amenable to learning social skills. Conflict occurs when you proceed without first eliciting cooperation.
Throughout the book I will be offering you examples. The wording in the examples may seem awkward at first. You may wonder, Why didn’t she use ‘please’ or ‘thank you,’ or other common phrases in the examples?
The answer will come. For now, read with an open mind and open heart. Shifting from fear to love requires that we change how we talk to ourselves and our children. I offer specific language suggestions to get you started. Ultimately, of course, you will adapt the wording to your own personality. In the following examples, which parent would you prefer to be?
The situation: Two boys are sitting outside eating pizza. Carter, age four, adores John, age ten, whom he is visiting. Carter spits on John’s pizza. John rushes inside to tell.
• If the parent uses fear: John’s mom comes out and commands, "Carter, stop spitting! How would you like John to spit on your food? That’s nasty! If you don’t stop, you will have to sit alone and eat. I know you two can get along. Don’t make me come out here again. John sneers,
I didn’t do anything." He plops himself down at the picnic table and gives Carter an irritated look. After John’s mother returns indoors, Carter spits on John’s food again. John pushes Carter off the bench and Carter starts to cry. John’s mom returns and sends John to his room and Carter home.
• If the parent relies on love: After John says, Mom, Carter is spitting on my pizza,
Mom responds, Go outside and tell Carter firmly, ‘I don’t like it when you spit on my pizza.’ I will go with you.
They walk outside and John says to Carter, I don’t like it when you spit on my pizza. Stop spitting.
Carter sits quietly. John’s mom then says to Carter, You want John to pay attention to you and talk to you, don’t you?
Carter smiles and nods in agreement. You didn’t know what to do, so you spit on his pizza.
Yes,
Carter says softly. John’s mother responds, You may not spit on John’s food. John does not like it. Listen to him. When you want John’s attention, start talking to him. You both like trucks. Ask John about the truck he saw yesterday.
The boys then started to discuss forklifts.
These examples show fear-based and love-based discipline in action. The parent who used fear tried unsuccessfully to dominate the situation and eliminate the conflict. The parent who used love taught the children new skills so that they would know how to resolve the conflict.