A huge part of parenting is teaching your kids the difference between right and wrong. There are the bigger picture things like the importance of sharing and treating others with respect. But there are also the smaller things like using manners and not saying certain words. There is a large debate about punishing bad behaviour, but something that has been proven to be more effective is rewarding good behaviour. This begs the question; how do you go about rewarding good behaviour? Keep reading to find out.
Be consistent
Consistency is important for parents in a number of areas, including discipline. When rewarding your children consistency helps to drive the message home. If you reward and praise them for an action one day and then ignore it the next, they won’t pick up that this behaviour is important or worth repeating. To help with this consistency, speak to your partner about behaviours that you want to focus on and agree on how you want to reward these actions moving forward. Keep in mind that you won’t need to do this forever. For example, your kids will likely pick up the importance of manners after a month or two.
Moderate rewards
The thing you need to consider is the level of reward that is appropriate for certain behaviours. For example, if you decide to take your child out for dinner every time they say please, you’ll be pretty broke by the end of the month. A good way of managing this is to agree on small rewards for smaller things, like letting them enjoy an episode of their favourite free cartoons, and big rewards for the more important things. We’ll leave this up to your digression, but we promise that
Come with a tracking system
A tracking system can help to add some fun and motivation to parenting. A classic example of this is something like a star chart. After your child does something agreed upon, they get a star on the chart. After they get a certain number of stars, they get a big reward. Some parents have systems where they cash in stars at different points for things. You don’t have to use this method, but it’s simply food for thought.
Be clear
Lastly, when rewarding behaviour, make sure that it’s when you’re giving a reward and why you’re doing so. Verbal praise is a form of reward and is an easy way to make it clear what the reward is for. If you’re allowing your kids to do an activity or taking them somewhere as a reward, make sure that you make it clear as to why they’re getting this.
Final Thoughts
Follow the tips in this guide and you’ll definitely see more good behaviour from your kids in no time!
