New approaches to challenging behaviors

When our children’s misbehavior continues despite our efforts to change it, whatever we are doing clearly isn’t working! It’s easy to get into parenting ruts where we continue to use the same response to our children’s misbehavior even though it isn’t having any positive effect.

One mom told me about how angry she was when her boys were supposed to be napping but instead they were goofing around in their bedroom. This had been going on for months despite her efforts to stop it by spanking them or yelling at them. We worked on thinking through other approaches that were more likely to succeed.

When the limits you trying to set on your children’s behavior are not effective, you will often see the behavior continue and most likely escalate. The
Priceless Parenting Guidebook is filled with ideas for handling everyday parenting challenges. It includes a challenging behavior worksheet for tracking new approaches. By focusing on changing one behavior at a time, parents can build on their successes without becoming overwhelmed by trying to change too much all at once.