Making Children Behave
by Linda Michie, Executive Director and Founder of Wishing Well Adoption & Family Services
You can’t make children behave.
You can’t really make anybody do anything.
You can inspire them.
You can teach them the benefits of being good.
You can set a good example.
You can reward them when they are good.
You can teach them the consequences of doing wrong.
You can punish them.
You can physically move them.
You can make yourself behave….
But they have the free will to do what they do.
(Oh, for goodness sakes Linda (you say), have you forgotten that we are responsible for keeping our children safe? And getting them off to school every day? And preventing them from committing crimes?)
No. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about the dichotomy of being responsible for what our children do without the real control of what they do.
So we have to be clever. We have to be informed. We have to be skilled. We have to think things out before they even happen so we can plan how to persuade our children to do good.
We have to figure out how to inspire our children to be good. Children are encouraged in different ways. Our job is to learn what works for our children and use it.
This is admittedly the world’s hardest job to do well. And the most important.
If you are overwhelmed please call and set up an appointment with a parenting coach (757) 739-2118.
Linda Michie
Linda has worked in the child welfare field since 1999 and is a Licensed Child Placing Agent.
Wishing Well assists in domestic adoptions in the state of Virginia, and provides parenting coaching, and supervised visitation in Virginia Beach, VA.
Latest posts by Linda Michie (see all)
- …More on Home Assessments, Custody Investigations, and Home Studies - February 1, 2019
- Supervised Visitation Details - December 10, 2018
- The Problem of Overpraising - September 6, 2018