by Whitney Barthel posted in Parenting

I am a total softie. The problem with this is children have a sixth sense when it comes to detecting adults that are susceptible to being walked all over.

As a child, I would say I was subjected to borderline emotional and physical abuse by an adult in my life that was not one of my parents. As I result, I vowed I would never act in a manner that made my children afraid of me.
I never wanted my kids to know the feeling of being hit or kicked by a caretaker, or what it?s like to be called stupid by an adult, or be in constant fear of facing punishment for something as small as an accident. I wanted my kids to feel nothing but safe and loved.
Unfortunately, the my boys eventually started viewing my resistance to discipline as a green light to misbehave.
You haven't known wild until you have lived in a house full of boys. My four boys, ages 6, 5, 3, and 1.
After being one of those moms dragging naughty kids through the grocery store, I decided something had to be done. And, being the boys? main caretaker as my husband works insane hours as a business owner, I knew it had to be done by me.
I did lots of research and tried reflecting on times I was disciplined as a child that were effective, yet did not scare me. Here is what I came up with.

Try to understand why your child is acting out. One thing I've noticed: sometimes my kids misbehave because they actually needed something and don't know how to communicate their needs to me. They...