Disciplining With Humor

Here is a suggestion for helping children learn to obey you:

Use humor: Humor is a excellent way to get children to obey. As long as they don't see your command as a game, then a funny song or funny face might swing them around. For example, you can:
* Deliberately get things wrong or do things backward.
* Tell funny stories of when you were young and did this activity.
* Sing a goofy song about the activity in a goofy way.
* Let the child help you with the activity, and in return, you get to help the child.
* Pretend something silly about the activity.
* Recall how the child had such a hard time with the activity as a baby, but now is so much older and more capable.
* If it's safe to do so, allow the child to help a younger child (or perhaps a stuffed toy) with the activity.
* Pretend to be someone else, like a favorite story or television character.
* Turn your hand into "Hand" or "Spider" (they don't need puppet costumes, so they can come out at any time), and let the child explain the activity to Hand or Spider.
* Whisper a favorite story, secret, loving comment, or song.
* Have a race -- perhaps a silly race, with mistakes on your part -- to see who can finish first.
* Emphasize how the activity will have such good and wonderful consequences.
* Sometimes you can just laugh until finally the child starts laughing too.

See other suggestions on the Safer Child Web site at this address:
http://www.saferchild.org/tipsfor4.htm


The information in this post is copyrighted. You may quote the original article. The proper citation is:
Rogers, L. (n.d.) "Tips for Effective Discipline." Retrieved (date) from the Safer Child, Inc. Web site: http://www.saferchild.org/tipsfor4.htm