Discipline can be difficult, but it usually isn't the child's fault. The biggest mistakes that I see parents making when it comes to disciplining their children are unrealistic, empty threats and lack of follow-through.

The Parent's Zone has some really good advice for disciplining your children. You can check them out here.

When a parent makes an unrealistic and empty threat to the child, it weakens their authority in the home. A good example might be threatening your child with a "life-time" of grounding if they don't stop whining or telling your teenager that he'll be grounded for the next 10 years because of a speeding ticket.

I've done this, you've done this, but we can't make a habit of unrealistic threats of discipline toward our children. When we make a threat that we can't possibly follow-through with, we are significantly hurting the authority we have with our children. They simply won't believe us when we spell out a consequence.

When we don't follow-through with the consequences that we do enact, we're also undermining our authority for the same basic reason. Our children will begin (and quickly I might add) to understand we won't "really" follow-through so they don't have to worry about our empty threats.

Be consistent and be fair. Two great words to implement into your parenting.

© Copyright 2007 Smalley Relationship Center

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