Thursday, December 13, 2012

Clouding the Issue


Q. My five-year-old daughter played hide and seek with a classmate rather than lining up after recess. The two of them also went in through another door at the school. While I don’t know what consequences happened at school, how should I punish her at home? This isn’t the first time the two of them have made mischief together. On a side note, when I talked to my daughter about this, she began yelling that I said she was dumb, etc. What should I do?

A: I highly recommend leveling a memorable home punishment to nip this behavior in the bud. Confine her to her room, which has only the bare essentials (no toys), directly after school, and move up her bedtime to right after supper. Each time you receive a negative report from school, simply tell you daughter what the teacher said (as a statement, not a question), and send her to her room.

Do not let her cloud the issue with her diversion tactics by screaming about what your supposed name calling. Ignore the drama, and she’ll eventually stop doing that as much. She’ll probably always have a certain amount of dramatic outbursts throughout her life, but you’ll handle them better if you realize she’s angry at the situation she caused. I’d recommend acquiring a sense of humor when it comes to those dramatic statements.

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