Fun ways to discipline your child

Discipline occupies an important place in parenting, with parents today finding and using creative and fun methods that make an impact to discipline our children without losing one’s temper. Positive discipline lies in using methods that are attention seeking, funny and sometimes wacky to make the lesson stick in the child’s mind for all time to come. The other day I was with a group of parents who used disciplinary methods that were plain memorable, attention seeking and creative; they were not a crime, but just acted as a deterrent.

Some of the fun ways parents used to discipline their children:

Some parents that felt it was best to take it away.

Geeta used a very funny way to discipline her Rahul and Rohit who left  their robes around; she threatened to drop off the robes in the thrift shop. Sure enough Rahul and Rohit did not realize how serious she was until she donated their robes at the thrift shop. Rahul and Rohit had to save up money to buy back the robes from the thrift shop; they have since taken good care of their robes.

Rohini decided to put away the sheets and blankets of her children Manish and Anita after they persistently did not clear up their beds. Not finding the sheets and blankets, Manish and Anita had to find sleeping bags to sleep until they promised to consistently make their bed, which they do till today.

Arun a very responsible father was fed up of asking his children Manish and Girish to switch off the light when they left a room. Being creative and humorous Arun removed every bulb in the house from light fixtures  and them each a light bulb to carry around and screw in when needed. Manish and Girish  got the point and since then they promptly put off the light when they leave the room.

Some parents believed in self-inflicted physical punishment that was uncomfortable: 

Rajesh a positive parent gave his children 25 push-ups to do when they misbehaved or teased their siblings. Some hesitation led to more push-ups; he made sure his children did the push-ups properly, without counting gruntingly lying on their tummy.

Jaya my cousin made her children Karthik and Kanta do squats, while my sister-in-law Shobha makes her children stand with back to the wall and to bend their legs at 90 degrees with arms stretched out in motor-cycle position.  

All these fun ways of disciplining should not be over-used as some children with tired muscles that use it to exhaustion may become resentful and act out.

Some parents believe in changing fights into laughs: 

Radha with 4 children found a very funny way to discipline her children when they got physical and fought; she took out adult-sized, huge and well-padded gloves and gave her children making them giggle at its size and then stop fighting.

Mary my friend set up a no-fight zone by hanging pictures of Jesus throughout the house except the bathroom and told her kids that they should not fight in front of Jesus; since her kids could fight only in the bathroom or outside their fights reduced considerably.

Vijay my brother used the window washing technique when his boys, Kapil and Satya fought; he asked them to stand on opposite sides of a sliding glass door and clean it. Kapil and Satya first made faces and then begin to laugh. Another similar fun trick was to make the kids hug each other, which made it difficult to get mad while hugging each other.

Sure enough Kim had a very funny way to put her point when William her son did not leave his dirty breakfast bowl everyday in the sink; she served some casserole into the dirty bowl as he sat down for dinner. Sure enough he got the point and faithfully puts his dirty breakfast bowl in the sink.

We would be glad if our readers could share some of their funny ways of disciplining their children.    

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