By Kim Obert – a mom and grandmother who leads the DrugFreeAz.org parent workshops
In my role at DrugFreeAz.org, I facilitate parent workshops for parents of tweens and teens. One of the first topics parents want to discuss is discipline. Parents want effective ways to discipline – and they want it yesterday! Most parents are quite perplexed that the discipline used on them by their parents, doesn't seem to work on their own kids.
How do you get kids to "behave?" It starts with a clear understanding of the rules between parents and kids.
In the workshop, we start with a “mock” Family Policy that states the rules and expectations for the kids concerning drugs and alcohol. Then we work on appropriate consequences. Consequences are most effective when they are directly connected to the infraction. For example, if your teen comes home after the agreed-upon curfew, grounding or removing the privilege of driving would be a “connected” consequence. Having a child perform chores for breaking curfew is not a connected consequence.
The point or the purpose of the consequence is to teach and redirect the teens' behavior, not just merely punish. We invite you to join us for one of our workshops. This school year we are offering Guiding Good Choices for parents of 4th through 9th graders, and Active Parenting Teens for parents of 12 to 18 year olds.
