How Do I Be A Respectful Parent?

Here’s something I’ve noticed over and over again about “respectful” or “gentle” parenting.   This idea that in an effort to redirect behaviour or calm our children we need to talk.  We give options, and validate emotions, then try sportscasting, explaining, and on and on and on....   And the whole time the child is only screaming louder, they’re melting onto the floor in the middle of story time, or they immediately go and do whatever it was you were trying to stop them from doing.   This can leave parents baffled, “why isn’t this whole gentle parenting thing working?”   This is going to seem like contradictory advice but here’s what I tell the parents who come to me with this problem…  Stop talking.  Yup.     We’re gonna zip it.  I can already guess your next question though: “If I need to stop talking, how am I supposed to get my child to listen without resorting to timeout and spanking?  I gotta do something besides let them run around like a gremlin.”  And that’s a valid question.   While communication is important, it’s not going to do you much good if they’re not able to actually listen to what you’re saying.   In this episode we´ll discuss:  - What to do when our kids are upset  - What is the best way of teaching them?  - What can i do to help them calm down? Grab the Scripts to Manage the Top 10 Crazy-Making Behaviours: prnt.link/scripts Watch the video recording here: Join the Parenting Posse: prnt.link/group the Mudroom is recorded live every Wednesday at 1:30pm ET/ 12:30pm CT/ 10:30am PT on Facebook: facebook.com/arfamilyservices