Letter from the Director!

No-Drama Discipline

Let’s continue our discussion on No-Drama Discipline. So far, we have talked about parents being intentional about how you react when your child isn’t behaving appropriately. We learned that discipline means ‘to teach’. It is our responsibility to ‘teach’ our children how to behave when things don’t always go their way. We learned that there are two main goals for discipline: for our kids to cooperate and do the right things, and to teach skills for handling challenging situations. We learned that we should connect with our children. Connection is key is obtaining the two main goals we have for discipline. And in our last discussion, we talked about the effects on the brain when we ‘spank’ or use punishment instead of discipline.

This month, I want us to reflect on our philosophy of discipline. After this book discussion, we as parents will have learned strategies that match our own belief system, as well as how to maintain respect for our children as the individuals they are.

So, how intentional are we when it comes to disciplining our children? Let’s stop and think about how we normally respond to our children when they misbehave. Here are some questions to guide us as we reflect on our own discipline techniques:

1. Do I have a discipline philosophy? This simply means having a purpose or reason for disciplining your child.

2. Is what I am currently doing working?

3. Do I feel good about my discipline technique?

4. Do my kids understand my approach and still feel that I love them?

5. What message am I communicating when I discipline?

6. Does my approach teach my children the appropriate behavior I expect?

How are you feeling right now about your current techniques? We have all been there. We are doing the absolute best that we can with the experience and knowledge we have on being a parent. It is my hope that after this series, each of us can feel better about our discipline techniques and know that we are teaching our children how to behave appropriately so they can become amazing adults later in life.

Next month we will dive deeper into the impacts discipline has on brain development.

Lisa Frye

Site Director