5.1 – Session 5. Behaviour techniques: introduction

Welcome to Confident Parenting Session 5. How we react to our children’s bad behaviour can influence how they react in the future.

• If you are shouted at, are you more likely to shout back?
• If you swear, rant and rave when you are angry and at the end of your tether are your children going to copy you?

Bad behaviour Quick Questions.

Look at the following list and choose what actions you would take. This is not a test, this is just to get you thinking about how you respond when your children behave badly.

Good and bad reactions

In your worksheet, make a list of three things that you do well when your children misbehave and three things that you think you don’t do so well. For example, for things that you do well you might write, "Always deal with bad behaviour immediately and explain what the children did wrong, then tell them how you would prefer them to behave". For things that you do not so well you might write, "Ignore the children squabbling for as long as possible because you are tired, then explode and shout and send them to bed."

Can you think about the things that you don’t do too well? Let’s look at how you might be able to improve your responses to your children’s bad behaviour.

Remember – there is no such thing as the perfect parent and we all get tired and ratty. We are here to improve things for ourselves and our families so remember to give yourself a pat on the back sometimes and remind yourself that you are doing the best you can!

First let’s look at how to ignore bad behaviour…

Next: 5.2 – Ignore where you canBack: 4.11 – Positive attention and praise – feedback