No matter how many books you read on parenting, you will still find that it is challenging work. But it’s still a great idea to learn from others in this area. In addition to reading and learning, networking with other parents is also helpful. Being able to give and receive support is what makes networking so helpful. What might work best is having family, along with people you know. The ideal situation is useful for many people, but for others the support on the home front is lacking. When a child is struggling to learn, redirection and substitution are two powerful and positive parenting procedures that are often overlooked. In fact, we use it with our newborn babies and children, but we quickly forget that it can also be one of our alternatives in our positive parenting when we help more established children deal with their nervousness and anger.
Redirection and substitution are certain child-rearing procedures that help youngsters learn appropriate behavior and counter problem behavior while maintaining their feeling of inquiry and disclosure. Read more about positive parenting here.
Redirection is a system used to break the path a child is on which will cause unseemly behavior. Feelings can quickly build up in a youngster to the point where they are emergency and wild. Redirection can often lead a child off that growing emergency path and onto another exciting path that can be fraught with revelation and miracle.
With babies and toddlers, our redirection is more direct and incentive-based. When my son was two years old, for reasons unknown, he was in awe of winged creatures. From time to time he would fall or not get the scissors he needed. When he started screaming, I was able to pick him up, carry him outside and when I called attention to a winged creature, I was able to start snapping him out of that enthusiastic state and into a miracle condition on that bird. People are quick to evaluate this method, but as your children become more experienced, this myopic method begins to lose steam.
Hopefully, your children will discover how important it is to apply even thoughts and actions to others. Notice the use of the words, applied to others, because that makes an important distinction, and your child will have a natural idea about the fairness that applies to him or her. It’s really confusing being a teenager, because of all the personal change you have to deal with. Your teens want to know that you are there for them, but at the same time they want more freedom. Let them know that you are around and you will give them a great gift.
