Treat your kids as you treat your guests
July 12, 2007 Leave a comment
It probably already happen to you more than one time, that a guest in your house break a glass or spill on the table or on the floor the drink or food you offered. What was your reaction? I bet you told them not to worry, you’ll fix that in no time etc. This is part of the fact you don’t want to make them feel bad, but even stronger inside you, you realize they had no bad intentions after all, it was just an accident.
What about your kids? How do you react when they are doing the same thing? Do you see that as an accident and try to fix it as soon as you can without making them feel bad? How do you deal with your kids when they do something wrong in your eyes? Do you have the wise reaction of trying to see what their intentions were? How many times kids have bad intentions? Most of the things we find wrong had no bad intentions when initiated. They may have bad results… but the intentions were good. Do you think that your reactions toward the kids’ mistakes could be different if you first question them about the intention they had when doing the mistake?
There is no scientific prove that kids learn after the punishments, but there is a generally accepted idea that we all learn from our mistakes. Would you deal with that differently if they were just some guests to your house? Than why not considering your kids guests to your house and always be nice with them and explain them what to learn from a mistake than focusing on how to punish them.