Parenting Tips

Kids often leave behind a messy trail from dirty laundry to broken crayons. Getting your child to clean up that mess or help out with other household tasks isn't always easy. A little motivation can help get your child moving on her duties around the house. Getting her to help out teaches her responsibility and takes part of the workload off your plate, leaving more family time for everyone. With a little effort, you can find the combination of motivators that works best for your child.

Everyone needs a little motivation to do unwanted tasks from time to time, but inspiring kids can be especially challenging. Bribing a child to clean his room or do homework with sweets or toys may seem like a good idea, but all it will ultimately motivate him to do is expect a reward in exchange for doing the task. If you want to foster a sense of drive, responsibility and accountability in a child, you need to tap into rewards such as pride, self-esteem and the satisfaction derived from reaching for and achieving a difficult goal.

In a perfect world, you wouldn't need to worry about discipline, but all parents face situations that require intervention. The goal of discipline is to decrease the undesirable behaviors and increase the positive choices your child makes. Both reinforcement and punishment are ways to achieve that goal, but the methods have subtle differences that may make one better suited for your child.

Positive reinforcement is a discipline strategy that helps children learn socially appropriate behavior. Like children of all ages, toddlers seek approval from their caregivers. Your toddler is more likely to repeat good behavior when you reinforce it with praise or rewards. Providing positive attention also decreases the likelihood that your toddler will misbehave to get attention. Whether your toddler is using gentle touches while petting the dog or working hard to build a tower with blocks, reinforce these positive behaviors.

Children, like adults, enjoy attention. Children tend to continue a behavior that secures attention. Behavior that does not arouse a reaction or is ignored is likely to eventually fall by the wayside. The key to raising kids with who learn positive behavior is consistency in a parent's reactions to their choices. Children who don't receive positive reinforcement will act out in order to get some kind of attention. Parents should be proactive and engaging, demonstrating and rewarding the behaviors they want their children to learn.

To parent successfully, determine the behaviors you want from your kids and then deliberately encourage those behaviors. Along those same lines, don't inadvertently reinforce undesired, negative behaviors. This conscious maneuvering can help your child learn your expectations and perform accordingly.

It doesn't matter if your toddler learned name-calling from watching TV or is imitating unkind words he heard his friends use left unchecked, this can develop into a hard-to-break habit. Less obviously than hitting or kicking, name-calling is a form of bullying. Children also resort to name calling when they feel out of control or hurt. Stopping your toddler from name calling requires skillful parenting and teaching him more appropriate ways to express himself.