PARENTING POST
By Sarah Chana Radcliffe
Your mouth WANTS to open and say something right away, but if you wait...
When you don’t respond immediately to your child’s disrespectful behavior, you model thoughtfulness. The opposite of impulsivity, this trait shows your child how to consider her best options, how to think things through. Of course, your momentary silence does not convey acceptance; in fact, you can certainly announce that you need time to think of an appropriate response. Then go ahead and take hours if you need them. When you come back with a clearly thought out plan of action (“I’ve had time to think about what happened earlier. I want you to know that I cannot accept that behavior and in the future, such & such will happen if it ever occurs ...”), you have done the exact OPPOSITE of what the child did in her earlier outburst. THIS is powerful education.
