Children are not born good or evil, but they don’t know how to behave, either. Their instincts often conflict with the rules. And you need to teach them how to live within the rules and do what is best, years before they can understand the reasons why they need to do this. The solution is behavior management. You want to encourage good behavior and discourage bad behavior. Here are 7 behavior management tips for every parent. 

Have Clear Expectations 

Set clear expectations for your child. These expectations should be realistic. For example, you can require a toddler to pick up their toys at put them in the toy box at the end of the day but not to clean the kitchen. You can have simple lists and even checklists of what you expect the child to do. These rules can include saying please and thank you, cleaning up messes they make, and taking care of themselves. Have preschoolers learn that the bedtime routine consists of a bath, brushing their teeth, reading the bedtime story and going to bed. If they fight taking the bath or won’t brush their teeth, you might read one book at bedtime instead of two. For older children, use chore charts. Make sure they know what you expect them to do on a daily and weekly basis.  [Read more…]