29/10/2025
Disciplining our children can be really hard, and it’s often confused with punishment (or vice versa!).
One way to distinguish between the two is to view discipline as a process that often starts with ensuring safety first & then co-regulation. Once our child are in a space to hear, it can be followed by teaching, skill building, and problem solving with our children.
Choosing to avoid punishment doesn’t mean that all behaviours are acceptable, that there are no consequences, or that boundaries and limits aren’t important. Rather, it means our focus shifts toward understanding what skills our child still needs to develop or what need they’re communicating, instead of simply trying to suppress behaviours we find challenging.
This can be particularly hard for us at times as we need to have a deeper understanding of ourselves as parents, our own triggers, & we take more responsibility for our own responses- rather than focusing solely on the behaviour of our child. ✨
