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A few months ago, we asked Empowering Parents readers to share how they respond when their child acts out. We asked this question because we want to help you be a more effective parent with real life, day-to-day struggles. There were three parenting styles that readers consistently told us they were using and weren’t working the way they would like.  The common denominator? All three undermine your authority as a parent.

Just as it’s not effective to negotiate your rules or yell, it’s not effective to soften your rules or expectations because your child says they’re too hard .

Remember, while there is no right or wrong way to parent, there are effective ways and ineffective ways. The good news is that you always have the chance to do things just a little differently. As Janet Lehman tells us, you can change your parenting style at any time in your journey with your child, whether they are 2 or 22.

Here are the three ineffective styles you told us about, along with alternative, more effective solutions.

Ineffective Parenting Style #1: Yelling

It’s so tempting, isn’t it, to yell at your child—especially when they’re yelling. Sometimes you feel like you have to raise your voice just to be heard at all, let alone have your child do what you want them to do.

But yelling doesn’t work. As James Lehman writes in The Total Transformation Program, yelling lets your child know that you are not in control. When you join your child in yelling, you’re showing them that in that moment you are their peer, not their parent.  The interaction quickly becomes about your yelling instead of their behavior.  And when you feel the need to defend your yelling, it takes even more of the focus off your child’s behavior.

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Yelling does not give you authority. It actually undermines it. When you maintain your own temper, you are claiming your authority as a parent.

How to Be More Effective

So how can you resist the temptation to yell when your child is trying to draw you into a shouting match? First, be clear with yourself—and your child—that you are focused on their behavior. Let them know that yelling will not solve their problem. While it can be hard to do, keep yourself as detached as you can from your child’s yelling.  Keeping a calm, clear, level voice makes it known that you will not be drawn off focus and won’t be taken down to their emotional level.  When you feel your temper rising, it is perfectly okay, even beneficial, to remove yourself from the situation (e.g., “I’m having a hard time keeping my temper. I am going to take a walk; afterwards, we will continue this discussion.”)

I’m not saying this is easy, at least not at first. Everyone yells sometimes. You’re human. Keep practicing, and keep bringing the focus back to your child’s behavior and the changes they need to make, and you’ll find it does get easier.

Ineffective Parenting Style #2: Over-negotiating

It seems like many kids are born lawyers. They look for any possible loophole, any flaw in your rules, or in how you deliver those rules.  And what parent enjoys giving consequences or saying no? We want our kids to be happy. Conflict is hard. If you yelled at your child and then feel guilty, it’s tempting to be overly lenient to make up for it.

Making it even harder, when kids know that sometimes the rules can be changed, they will always try negotiating, hoping that this is “one of those times.”  They know that if they’ve previously talked you into changing the rules (“Just this once!”), or gotten you to agree to a lesser consequence (“But I can’t come home right after school because…”), it can always happen again. Because when you change a rule or a consequence, you are telling your child that rules can always be broken and that limits are meaningless. I mean, why would anyone follow rules that can be negotiated away? Kids(and adults!) will always argue when they think there’s a chance they’ll get their way.

How to Be More Effective

The solution? Consistency. If you want your child to change his behavior, your consequences need to be clear and consistent. Consistency lets kids know that negotiation is not an option.

Of course, sometimes kids have some good points. And sometimes they just need to vent about what they see as a grave injustice. Okay. That’s true for everyone; sometimes we just need to voice our opinion. James Lehman has a great solution for this: complaint time. Rather than allow your child to complain and attempt to negotiate different rules or consequences, set up a daily or weekly complaint time. During this time, listen to their grievances; you can even discuss some options for the future. But remain clear that this is not a place to plead their case.  Rules will not change and consequence given will remain in place. This is simply a designated time for their concerns to be heard.

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When your child attempts to complain or negotiate, you can redirect them by saying something like, “I’d be happy to hear your concerns. Write that one down so you remember to tell me during your complaint time. You have half an hour, starting at 7pm.”

Ineffective Parenting Style #3: Rescuing

What does it mean to “rescue” your child? As parents, we hate to see our children struggle. When we see our child getting frustrated, we want to make it easier; and so we lower our expectations, or take over the task our child is wrestling with.  The tricky thing is, kids don’t grow and change without struggle. Doing something new can be hard; but children won’t learn more effective ways to deal with their problems if they don’t struggle.

If you jump in and rescue your child, you’re doing two things.  One, you’re training them to give up when things get hard. If all they have to do is say “I can’t,” and you do it for them, why should they push through and try?  Two, by jumping in at the first sign of difficulty, you’re actually sending your child the message that you don’t believe they can do it.

How to Be More Effective

If you want to see your child learn new skills and change their behavior, you have to develop your tolerance for seeing them struggle as they learn.  I don’t mean you should refuse to help if they need it! But this is when you need to be a coach for your child, like James teaches us.  You are not there to do it for them; you are there to guide them through learning the behaviors they’ll need to be healthy, well-adjusted people.

One big way you coach and guide your child is by establishing—and sticking to—clear rules, expectations, and consequences. Just as it’s not effective to negotiate your rules or yell, it’s not effective to soften your rules or expectations because your child says they’re too hard.

Of course, this can get tricky if your child acts out when they feel overwhelmed. Sometimes parents make things easier for their child as a way to protect themselves and others from their child’s destructive behaviors: if you never challenge the child, then you never have to deal with the full-blown melt-down or aggressive response. The truth is, while this approach might seem effective in the short-term, it won’t accomplish your goal of helping your child learn how to regulate their behavior, especially when they feel stressed. If you keep your child’s environment unnaturally calm, they will never learn to deal with pressure effectively. It is far more effective to teach your child to handle their problems than it is to convince the rest of the world to tread lightly around your child.

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Related Content:
In Over Your Head? How to Improve Your Child’s Behavior and Regain Control as a Parent

About

Megan Devine is a licensed clinical therapist, former Empowering Parents Parent Coach, speaker and writer. She is also the bonus-parent to a successfully launched young man. You can find more of her work at refugeingrief.com, where she advocates for new ways to live with grief.

Comments (2)
  • Nikita kumar
    Children in today's world need a lot of attention and affection. Guidance and proper handling of kids is to done by parents . To bring the kids in discipline is to be done by love, firm rules ans not by hard -core commands or spanking.So be very calm and composedMore in your disosition .
  • SEL12

    Is it

    possible to judge parenting styles as right or wrong? In the United States, the

    most popular parenting style is authoritative. This style involves the parent

    being in charge of the child, but there is also room for negotiation. The

    author is arguing for an authoritative parenting style. While this form of

    parenting is the main style used in North America, it is not the only effective

    style.

    A small

    sample of families in the United States and many families in other cultures

    tend to use an authoritarian style of parenting. This type of parenting

    involves the parent controlling their child without giving the child much of

    the reasoning for the rules or room for discussion/negotiation. Megan Devine’s article

    may be considered useful for families in North America because it serves as

    affirmation that they are parenting correctly. I would assume that the article

    would be viewed negatively in a culture that promotes an authoritarian style of

    parenting. (More information on the different parenting styles and how they are

    applied throughout various cultures can be found in Barbara Rogoff’s piece on

    Interdependence and autonomy (2003).

    Over time,

    cultures collectively agree on what values and morals are important to their

    community. These views differ all around the globe. The author acknowledges in

    the introduction paragraph that there is no definite right or wrong way to

    parent. But, she wouldn’t have written this article if she didn’t believe that

    her advice was the “correct” way of parenting. And while it may be correct for

    her family, it may not relate to others.

    Many of the

    author’s suggestions include ways to teach a child to be independent. Independence

    is something that is strongly valued in American culture. But in many other

    cultures, interdependence is valued instead. Some of her advice does not associate

    with the interdependent self and therefore may not relate well to families of

    other cultures. In the section about negotiation tactics, the author suggests

    that too much negotiation can lead to permissive parenting, but she does not

    suggest that negotiation is a bad concept. An example in Barbara Rogoff’s (2003)

    chapter illustrates how negotiation can differ in effectiveness between

    cultures. One of the studies showed that Haitian children tended to act out

    against the teachers that would attempt to negotiate with them. When they were

    strictly told what to do or what not to do, the children were very well

    behaved. An example like this shows us that while Megan Devine’s article may be

    helpful to North American families, it is not something that should be shared

    as a fact or the correct way to raise a child.

    I hope that this comment can push

    parents into having more of an open-mind when it comes to parenting. I don’t

    believe the advice in this article is wrong or should be disregarded, but

    parents should try to be less worried about sticking to a specific parenting

    style. With the popularity of the Internet and social media in this day and

    age, it is hard not to compare what your actions with the actions of others,

    but – to an extent – I think less is more when it comes to parenting advice. Parenting

    advice should also be thought of as subjective. Many parents struggle with

    seeing conflicting pieces of advice online and deciding which piece is correct.

    This causes parenting to be an anxious experience, which I don’t think it

    should be. If more parents were open minded to the many different parenting

    styles in cultures around the world, I think they would be able to breathe

    easier knowing that there isn’t necessarily a right or wrong way to raise your

    children.

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