More often than not, most parents attribute any “acting out” by kids to plain misbehavior, but the child may actually be sending you a cry for help or an SOS. This, according to a post by Dr. Laura Markham on her Aha! Parenting blog, is something that parents often miss.
Unbearable feelings
When our children misbehave, we automatically respond with a scolding or any punishment, but Dr. Markham says that maybe a child is misbehaving because there are some feelings that he/she finds unbearable that he/she has to act it out. Dr. Markham says your child could just be needing more sleep or is suffering from a physical ailment if he/she is always cranky and uncooperative. A child who lies could just be because he/she is afraid of you. When a child is being disrespectful, it could be because they don’t feel they are getting enough connection, warmth and respect from parents.
To help parents decode their child’s SOS, Dr. Markham lists down a number of questions that parents need to answer in order to decode their child’s SOS and respond appropriately. These questions include ones that concern the behavior in your child that bothers you most, the actions you could take to respond to your child’s SOS, and the things you will do differently in the future when it comes to responding to your child’s cry for help.
So the next time our kids misbehave, perhaps we should take Dr. Markham’s tips to heart so we will know what’s bothering our children and immediately act on them
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