Some parents are lucky and have a child that is easy to discipline or that simply wants to please and almost always does as the parent asks. Then, there are parents who have a child that never listens, does not like to please anyone except himself, and simply is strong willed and a handful. These children repeatedly test their parents and make the entire family crazy at times. However, there are ways to discipline strong willed children. Most of the time the most effective thing is for parents to be consistent with their strong willed child not to mention understanding.

It is hard to understand why your child refuses to listen to you. Also, it is difficult not to take it personally when your child repeatedly does the things you ask him not to do. However, it is important to realize your child is not intentionally trying to make you feel like a bad parent. Instead, your child is trying to find out what works for him. If he does not do what you ask him to do and you let him get away with it then it is worth his disobeying to get what he wants. In fact, if you let him get away with it even half of the time or just sometimes this is enough for your child to challenge your authority and disobey you.

So, you are probably wondering, how can you possibly discipline your strong willed child? The answer is to always be consistent. It really is difficult to be consistent with a strong willed child simply because you will want to let your child have his way sometimes just to give you a break. However, allowing your childs bad behavior to be rewarded with not doing what you ask is only reinforcing the behavior. The only way around this is to always be consistent.

Consistent means every single time you ask your child to do something you must enforce the behavior you have requested. The reason this is so important with a strong willed child is because it is the only way to enforce good behavior. When you always discipline your child and are consistent then even your strong willed child will react positively. Keep in mind it will tae time and a lot of effort on the part of the parents, but with consistency your strong willed child will respond and eventually disciplining wont be so difficult.

Posted in Parenting

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