All About Your Child

It is normal for children to misbehave at times. Witnessed this in Great World City, a shopping centre in Singapore on a typical weekend…

Great World City is generally a “quiet” shopping mall… the silence was broken abruptly when I heard a boy screaming at the top of his lungs, way before he appeared infront of me.

He was screaming sooooo loudly that I could hardly hear anything except “I WANT THAT…..”

When he came in sight, he slammed himself on the floor! Rolling and “swimming” on the floor with his hands and legs moving in an uncoordinated manner; as he kept his eyes on his mummy as she walks away from him.

The boy looked 4-5 years old. The dad and grandmother was right behind him.

The mum made her stand by saying “NO! I am not getting that for you!”

The dad was too concern with his pride, said “Carry him up, he is making a scene here, everyone is looking at us!”

The grandmother tried to coax the child and scold her daughter-in-law at almost at the same time, its actually quite comical to see how fast her tone changed from a pampering tone (to the boy) and then to a blaming tone (to the child’s mum) and then back again to the nice and sweet granny…. “Aiya….Just give him what he wants, don’t let him cry like that….”

After about 10mins of “show”, the father couldn’t stand the eyes of the onlookers, grabbed the child, lift him up, placed him over his wide shoulders and walked off towards the direction of the mummy, who is long gone out of sight. Awww….

We can see 3 different views of handling a child misbehaving in public…. if you were in such a situation? Your child is making a hell of noise, everyone is looking at you, your spouse and your in-law are shouting at you…. what would you have done?

Tips in Disciplining Your Child

Parents should try to agree between themselves when dealing with children – There should be some general agreement on family rules and the consequences if these rules are broken. If possible, you should discuss what you would do with your child before the situation arises.

Parents should avoid disagreeing regularly in the child’s presence – Frequent disputes will confuse your child and discipling actions become ineffective. Your child may also manipulate the disagreements to his advantage.

Parent should take control and manage their child – Some parents are afraid to control their child. This lack of control may give the child opportunities to manipulate them.

Rules for children should be clear – This will help your child to know what is expected. Consistent enforcement of these rules is also important, otherwise your child’s behaviour may become erratic. However, rules should be reviewed and modified periodically so that they are appropriate for you child’s growing needs.

Back to the basics….look back at Understanding your child’s development pattern. Understand your child, in order to know how to handle him/her more efficiently….its a skill, you need practice.