728x90
my iParenting
From Our Sponsors
e-newsletters
Sign up to receive our free weekly e-newsletters

new terms of use
new privacy policy
award-winning products
The iParenting Media Awards program helps parents find the best products for their families.
Home › Articles › Discipline › Danny the Disrespectful Kid

Danny the Disrespectful Kid

An Excerpt

By Elizabeth Pantley

Pages:  1  2  3  4  5  6  

The Hidden Message
"You can be as disrespectful to me as you want; you'll suffer no consequences whatsoever. I'll do nothing to influence you to change your behavior, so we can continue on this way for the rest of our lives."

Think About It
It's offensive to hear a child act in such rude and disrespectful ways toward a parent. But the sad fact is that even good kids pick up this behavior from their peers, movies and TV shows. Many parents today are distressed at seeing this behavior in their own children, and they mistakenly believe themselves powerless to change their child's behavior.

Most parents start off on the right foot – teaching toddlers to say "please" and "thank you." Over time, however, tedious reminders and busy schedules interfere with continuing lessons. A few rude or disrespectful remarks slip by uncorrected, and soon a very unpleasant pattern emerges – a pattern that gets more difficult to break as the child ages. It's like a smudge on the wall; if you walk by it often enough, you cease to notice it. And the longer it stays, the harder it is to remove.

The startling reality is that the disrespect itself is not the problem here, but merely a symptom of a much greater difficulty: on the child's part, a failure to understand expectations and the hierarchy of authority ... and on the parent's part, a failure to communicate those expectations.


Pages:  1  2  3  4  5  6  


Want to see more?