It isn’t all that hard to teach children something but then again, it isn’t as easy either.
Children, like all individuals, have subjective preferences and learn at their own pace. Not only do they learn at their own pace but there will also be things that some children might enjoy learning more than others followed by some they may not.
Modes of Punishment
There are plenty of ways to teach children what you want to teach them without being quick to punish them. Punishing children might be the most futile, harmful way of making sure they learn absolutely nothing at all.
It has been decades since corporal punishment was banned in schools, but sadly, the other forms of punishment that are probably more harmful have since time immortal remained in active practice. Not so much at educational institutions as, in more personal environments like at home.
The Shortcomings of Certain Parental Practices
Parents rarely understand how much therapy and emotional effort it takes a grown-up individual to move past issues rooted deeply in their psyche since childhood.
Sometimes, when people with unresolved parental issues become parents themselves, they begin to disregard their child’s well-being in the same way that their parents disregarded theirs, be it consciously or unconsciously.
Continuing Side-Effects
Trauma therapy usually ends up uncovering the issues at the root of one’s suffering which more often happens to be related to or rooted in bad parenting than one would have thought. When you are an inconsiderate parent, you set a very low bar for your child’s life. It is likely that they would develop extremely unhealthy attachment patterns and hence choose partners that treat them with the same ignorance and disregard that their parents treated them with.
It is also likely that they grow into unhealthy behavioral patterns for example doing drugs as a teenager thinking it would either numb their senses or help them cope with the stress in some alternative way when in reality, drugs would only ruin their mental and physical health further.
Use Their Mistakes to Teach Them
One can more easily teach their children important lessons by using natural occurrences to their advantage.
For example, if a child falls and bruises their knee, when dressing their wound, gently bring up how fast or how recklessly they were running with the ‘you could see it coming because you were reckless’ implied but more of in a gentle manner so they begin to understand that if they make a mistake, there will be consequences.
Turn Disobedience into a Lesson Without Punishing Them
If a child isn’t listening to you, let them taste the food while it is too hot for once, just to make sure they don’t do it again because they would remember how hot food burns in their mouth.
It sounds harsh at first but when you think about it you begin to understand how this is so much better than yelling instructions at them only to be ignored.
Instead of That, Try This.
Instead of forcing them to do something, put them in a position where they have to do the thing of their own choice.
Instead of yelling at them or arguing with them, install a FamilyTime parental control app on their device and use it to make to-do lists for them.
Set up tasks for your children and then set up consequent rewards when each task is accomplished. These rewards could be in the form of more screen time on social media apps or more online gaming time.
Outsmart Them
Win at parenting by outsmarting your children. This does not in any way refer to competing with them.
The implication here is that if parents try to understand from a child’s point of view, visibly, having more control over their social media usage and gaming hours would sound more tempting to children.
Especially if, the cherry on top, the children are granted more freedom over when they do their homework during the day, as long as they get it done.
Adolescents and young adults go through a series of changes, major and petty, but the impact they leave stays for a while longer than expected.
Teenage Can Be Having A Hard Time
Usually, in psychological interviews, it is found that most young adults report their teenage years as being the hardest phase of their lives. Mainly, because of the transition out of a lot of things and into a lot of different things, but more importantly, it is the communication gap between adolescents and their elder caregivers or parents that makes it harder for them to cope.
Young adults, when reflecting on their early teenage years happen to state something along the lines of the fact that ‘they were treated like children but expected to behave like adults’ which confused them and left them in this place of not knowing how to act and what to do. Add on top of that, the stress of every day at school and the idea of leaving this familiar place soon to go to an unfamiliar place, called college and try and adjust over there for a while only to leave again for university in a few years. Not only can the idea be intimidating, but also anxiety-provoking and, given enough indifference from parents and elders, might lead to the individual indulging highly in delinquent behaviours.
How to Be a Supportive but Authoritarian Parent
- Make clear rules and stick to them. Make sure those rules are followed, inside the house and outside.
- Make sure your children know you love them and believe in them. Show your adoration.
- Understand that there is a generation gap and that might cause differences in perception and try to accept that.
- Hear your children out and make sure they feel seen, heard, and included before concluding or deciding on a family matter.
- Plan holidays if you want more offline face time with your children.
- Teach your children about things they don’t know and be gentle while doing so.
- Set high goals for your children but also be highly supportive of them as they grind to achieve those goals.
- Make time for fun, play games with your children so they can view you as a friend as well as an authority figure rather than just a stone-cold authority figure who imparts orders.
- Be empathetic. Even if you do not understand your child’s point of view, try to see where their argument is coming from. Is it coming from a place of hurt? What can you do to help them heal from this pain?
- Figure out when to be lenient and when not to be too lenient with them because finding balance and maintaining it is important.
Use a Parental Control App
Outsmart them by using parental control apps like FamilyTime that offer supreme premium features at the most economical pricing and stay updated regarding not just the physical but also the mental whereabouts of your children.
The bottom line is that Parental control apps like FamilyTime can help parents figure out where their children are on an emotional level by letting them monitor chat history, app usage statistics, call logs and so much more.
What’s amazing is that there is also a safe driving limit for teenagers meaning more mental peace for parents and for longer.
