It's so hard to believe that the New Year is among us already! As is
the tradition with New Year's many of us set resolutions. I don't
set resolutions but goals instead. It seems that resolutions are too
easily forgotten where as goals seem more important and harder to
forget. So now on to my point...
One of my goals for 2007 is to take back control in the area of
discipline/consistency with my son. The fact that Caleb is only 8
seems like taking back control would be easy. Wrong, oh how very
wrong I was! I've always kind of 'lacked' in the
discipline/consistency area. I'm one of those parents that (gulp)
gives in easily even though I know that only causes more problems in
the long run. So often it seems easier to give in then to continue
fighting with an 8 year old.
Right now you are probably thinking fighting with an 8 year old,
what? Well believe me if you knew my strong willed, persistent and
determined to get his way son you would understand. Every single
area of life is a struggle between the two of us but for the sake of
this column this week I'm talking about the struggle when it comes
to discipline.
Disciplining a child that has been given control and had control in
the past is quite challenging and a bit discouraging for me and I'm
sure it's just as discouraging and probably even a bit confusing for
Caleb. For both our sakes I have to regain control and teach him to
respect me so that we aren't living every single day in strife.
I'd like to say that I have figured out how to handle this situation
but quite frankly I'm clueless. I've tried time outs, groundings,
taking toys away and all the 'basic' discipline techniques but they
don't seem to be severe enough for my son. I heard a new idea and
even though it seems a bit severe I'm at the point where I have
nothing to lose so I'm going to give it a shot. This new technique
that I'm going to try is where I remove everything from Caleb's
bedroom except for his bed and he has to earn his things back. I'm
praying that God will help make this work.
Hopefully sooner than later I'll be able to come back and report
that this is the technique that finally helped me regain control
again!
