Kansas City,
20
September
2016
|
15:46 PM
America/Chicago

How to Change Your Kids' Bad Behavior in One Week

Kids misbehave—it's a fact of life. But if it feels like your world revolves around an obnoxious child, with nary a peaceful moment at home, it may be time for a change.

Jacqueline Burt, a single mom of a 9-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son, felt overwhelmed by her youngsters' everyday bickering and tantrums, so she decided the madness had to stop, she explained in her essay for Parents.com.

"My kids' annoying tendencies tend to bring out the worst in me," she wrote. She realized that in order to change her children's behavior, she would have to change hers too. Jacqueline reached out to some of the best parenting experts across the country for their discipline tips, then tested them for one week with her own kiddos. Here are some of the methods she found the most helpful when her kids acted out.

1. Don't express a reaction. When Jacqueline's son became impatient during an errand, she decided to not react to his outbursts, and found that it made a big difference. "The mistake most parents make is responding to the misbehavior, since negative attention is better than none at all," Ed Christophersen, Ph.D., clinical child psychologist at Children's Mercy Kansas City told her. Within a few minutes, her son realized he wasn't going to get the attention he was seeking and calmed down. Crisis averted!

 

Read the full story via Woman's Day.

Learn more about Children's Mercy's Division of Developmental and Behavioral Sciences.