Creating an atmosphere of positive discipline requires an attitude in which kindness replaces punishments. Hard as it may be to believe, throughout the years of their childhood, my kids were only grounded once, ever, and I didn't do the grounding. Actually, after a sibling spat, they grounded each other. Funny story for some time later ...
Perhaps you've surmised that in order to discipline my kids with kindness ... patience and good humor were injected into consequences that made sense. As that combination was not easy to pull off during moments fraught with frustration, someone had to come up with ways to train my wild thing to calm down in hopes of responding to my kids' misbehaviors in a manner that I'd want them to mimic. Oh wait ... now that I stop to think about it, that's exactly how I'd responded to 'my' kids (my students) in school—with kindness, patience and good humor. Once I wrapped my processor around this new mind set, my attitude changed and taming my wild thing in hopes of disciplining myself proved less improbable as I'd have thought. :)
In addition to engaging in an open conversation with a neighbor's good sense, I was double blessed in this way. I had a father, whose adventurous spirit and larger than life personality inspired his daughter to emulate his curiosity as well as his lust for life. As such, I inspired myself to tackle every project that appealed to me enthusiastically.
At times when my thought processor is engaged in shifting an attitude (closed mind set), it's natural for confusion to grab hold of my brain. As confusion feels foggy with no clue as to which direction to go, it's common for frustration to yell, right out loud. Though many denBethe reality of harboring two sides—a logical side, and the side where the wild thing hides out ... It's a fact that after this wild thing leaps out and slips back in, we hope that others will forget its sneak attacks. To this day, when confusion causes my defense system to send out silent signals of alarm, I seek a quiet place in which to calm my wild thing down in hopes of targeting my processor to think deep. Parenting texts have a name for this quiet place—it's called—time out. And thus, rather than being a place where adult or child feels guilty or punished, time out is a place to contemplate attitudes in need of change when social interaction produces stress instead of peaceful pleasures.
I think it's important that you have a sense of my frame of mind and that of my family before I color in the reasons why my strike worked wonders in terms of cooperative teamwork stepping up to the plate and hitting a grand slam... so please climb into my time machine and buckle your seat belt, because as soon as I throw this baby into reverse, we'll zoom back to that park bench in 1971 ... and if the next post published deviates from that plan, well, that's the beauty of writing a blog, where at the drop of a hat, my train of thought can choose to switch tracks ... Clickety clack :)
Perhaps you've surmised that in order to discipline my kids with kindness ... patience and good humor were injected into consequences that made sense. As that combination was not easy to pull off during moments fraught with frustration, someone had to come up with ways to train my wild thing to calm down in hopes of responding to my kids' misbehaviors in a manner that I'd want them to mimic. Oh wait ... now that I stop to think about it, that's exactly how I'd responded to 'my' kids (my students) in school—with kindness, patience and good humor. Once I wrapped my processor around this new mind set, my attitude changed and taming my wild thing in hopes of disciplining myself proved less improbable as I'd have thought. :)
In addition to engaging in an open conversation with a neighbor's good sense, I was double blessed in this way. I had a father, whose adventurous spirit and larger than life personality inspired his daughter to emulate his curiosity as well as his lust for life. As such, I inspired myself to tackle every project that appealed to me enthusiastically.
At times when my thought processor is engaged in shifting an attitude (closed mind set), it's natural for confusion to grab hold of my brain. As confusion feels foggy with no clue as to which direction to go, it's common for frustration to yell, right out loud. Though many denBethe reality of harboring two sides—a logical side, and the side where the wild thing hides out ... It's a fact that after this wild thing leaps out and slips back in, we hope that others will forget its sneak attacks. To this day, when confusion causes my defense system to send out silent signals of alarm, I seek a quiet place in which to calm my wild thing down in hopes of targeting my processor to think deep. Parenting texts have a name for this quiet place—it's called—time out. And thus, rather than being a place where adult or child feels guilty or punished, time out is a place to contemplate attitudes in need of change when social interaction produces stress instead of peaceful pleasures.
I think it's important that you have a sense of my frame of mind and that of my family before I color in the reasons why my strike worked wonders in terms of cooperative teamwork stepping up to the plate and hitting a grand slam... so please climb into my time machine and buckle your seat belt, because as soon as I throw this baby into reverse, we'll zoom back to that park bench in 1971 ... and if the next post published deviates from that plan, well, that's the beauty of writing a blog, where at the drop of a hat, my train of thought can choose to switch tracks ... Clickety clack :)
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