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Child Behavior: What About Self-Esteem?

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Self-esteem is very crucial in a child’s development because it is the feeling of pride in oneself to solve problems and overcome challenges. Children at a young age are encouraged by parents so they can boost up their confidence and develop the ability to do things by themselves.

Self-esteem starts at a very early stage in life. For example a toddler learns how to blow out candles on a birthday cake, and it makes him feel good about himself because he has accomplished a challenge difficult for his age. Kids who feel good about themselves seem to have an easier time handling conflicts and resisting negative pressures. Self-esteem is a child’s armor against the challenges of the world.

A child’s self-esteem depends to a large extent on the success he or she experiences in school and in relationships with parents and peers. It is easy to imagine how the self-esteem in children with behavioral problems can suffer. These type of kids avoid challenges because they fear failing and rejection. Instead of challenging themselves and overcoming the problem they prefer to escape by developing behavior which tends to lean on the negative side such as blaming others or lying. This results in failure to develop a healthy self-esteem.

Not overcoming the challenges needed to develop self-esteem can have lifelong negative perception on oneself. Children with behavioral problems continue to act the way they do because they can get attention from doing so. Your child can take on that behavior for a very long time and in the long run can become one of those “spoiled brats” that you never intended on raising. They gain a twisted sense of self-esteem for manipulating not only you as a parent but also other people around them. Abusive behavior should never be tolerated for the sake of peaceful living. Attitude problems can seriously affect them when they become adults. The key step in stopping it is to assess your child’s behavior. Adjusting and accepting negative behavior isn’t the solution. The job of a parent is to teach good morals for them to become productive adults in the society.

If you have a child with abusive and disrespectful behavior, I recommend that you grab a copy of The Total Transformation by James Lehman.

Why Parents Retaliate at their Kids

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Parents already have that instinct to teach their kids the proper and the right attitude when dealing with situations and others. Bad behavior is usually corrected. But what happens when the child refuses to listen or even lashes out? The result would be a parent in an angry outburst. There would be tension between both parties. It’s a no win situation when both are in a heated argument. These children would blame you of their wrongdoings and in the end parents lie low and pretend that negativity never happened.

Just because a child does have a behavioral problem does not mean it is an excuse to tolerate their actions. Just because your child has ADD does not mean he can scream at you any time he feels like it. They must be taught how to control and minimize their unsatisfactory attitudes.

We must first understand how a child thinks. Children at any age have a while multitude of emotions, thoughts and feelings which not everybody can understand and so they behave the way they do in an attempt to be understood among their peers, the people around them, their siblings and especially their parents.

The efforts they try to put into normal communication seems to be in vain. That is why they resort to negative actions to compensate for it. They see that negative behavior seems to generate more attention, so they continue it. It’s just like how little Johnny breaks all the dishes on purpose just to catch everybody’s attention.

This is called competitory behavior. Kids act out when they are anxious or nervous. One example is how they suddenly become too much to handle, such as when they start screaming to the point of driving you to tears or running around the house and breaking things. They are doing these to compensate for their feelings of anxiety to relieve the stress and minimize the pressure they are feeling.

As parents, our main goal is to teach children the accepted norms of society in order for them to grow and be accepted by others as an individual. Helping him solve the inner problems and teaching him how to cope with the turmoil in a positive way is one way of raising a healthy child.

If your child lashes back at you, I recommend that you grab a copy of The Total Transformation by James Lehman.

Understand Your Problem Child and Become a Better Parent

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Have you ever wondered why the sudden mood changes in your child? Tantrums when they don’t get what they want? Being disrespectful and bullying other kids? Don’t panic and hit the big red button quite yet. Stay calm. You are not the only one dealing with this. There are millions of parents out there dealing with problem child behavior. Children are naturally very active with the impulse to explore and search for new things. This type of alertness is very much considered normal but when they start acting rude, abusive and completely ignore what you say now that’s a sure sign of defiance. Children don’t usually vent out negative steam unless they’re trying to tell us something. Abusive and obnoxious behavior tends to affect everybody including the parents, other people around them and most especially themselves.

Parents need to be concerned about the child’s current behavior and what that behavior could lead to when he grows up. Normal behavior in children depends on the child’s age, personality, physical and emotional development. The actions children do may be considered normal for others while it could be considered as a problem for some. Sometimes, we may have to decide whether the behavior is not a problem depending on the child’s age and stage of development. Before labeling your kid a problem child we must first have to understand that some behaviors are a result of growing up. There are a lot of reasons why a child suddenly becomes unmotivated. Parents can also unknowingly contribute to a child’s negative behavior by being too intrusive and constantly imposing on their own agenda. By not reading on the child’s cues can contribute to their rigidity and stubbornness to accept their wrongdoings.

As parents our main role is to understand our child and teach them the right things in life for them to become healthy individuals in the society. Raising a child isn’t just about feeding them at the right time, changing their diapers when soiled, and providing them an education. It is also teaching them good morals and proper conduct for them to become an asset in the society when they grow up and become responsible for their actions.

If you have a child with abusive and disrespectful behavior, I recommend that you check out The Total Transformation by James Lehman.

Why Negotiating with Defiant Kids Won’t Work

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You’re probably familiar with the concept of governments not negotiating with terrorists, right? Many countries have decided to take on this policy for one reason – it is effective.

Well, think of your child as that terrorist – making a demand. You are the government. A definition from Wikipedia states that “Common definitions of terrorism refer only to those violent acts which are intended to create fear (terror), are perpetrated for an ideological goal (as opposed to a lone attack), and deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants (civilians)”.

Defiant kids can become abusive and disregard who gets hurt in the process. Just like the terrorists, they think that the world is unfair and they want others to suffer because they are suffering. At least, this is the belief they often hold onto, whether they are consciously aware of it or not. They may be suffering on the inside, but nobody has the right to harm another person. So, negotiating with your kids is not the answer. But why is that?It’s because negotiation will only give them more power. They’ll think that you will be open to negotiate anything, especially when they start to make threats.

As a parent, you would love to make life easier for your kids. I know, I feel the same way too. During years when your kid is young, you may have said, “You should clean your room” or “You should do your homework”. Then they start asking, “Mom, can I do it tomorrow instead?”. This seems harmless at first, so you agree. But if this becomes a pattern, your child will unconsciously learn that everything can be negotiated. Every time you tell your child to do something, they will negotiate because you allowed it to happen often before.

If your child is defiant and always negotiates with you, this is a problem. He will find every way possible to get around your requests. If he is unsuccessful, he starts threatening. He threatens to become violent, threatens with tantrum-like behavior, or to be angry at you. And to think, all you wanted was a quiet and relaxing evening. So even when your gut says “don’t give in!” you do, hoping the negotiation will bring you the relaxation you want. In the long term, this simply makes things worse.

Because you love your child so much, you become lenient and soft. You have to bear in mind if you’ve been doing this for a while and you are not getting results. You need to learn how toughen up and resist the urge to give in to your child’s whims.

There are many parenting skills that you can learn to overcome these problems. Don’t ever fall into the trap of thinking that you won’t ever be able to learn new tricks. Believe me…you can.

Dealing with defiant children can sometimes take a toll on us. I have found a program that successfully teaches you the skills you need to learn. Get a copy of The Total Transformation by James Lehman.

Teaching Kids to say “Sorry” and Mean it

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Saying that you are sorry for a mistake that was made comes easy for some; and for others it’s really hard. Not just for kids, mind you, but this is also true for adults. But let’s talk about your children.

Young children often worry about being punished, which is why they will sometimes try to pass the fault to somebody else. They may also lie, or come up with excuses for their actions. They have a difficult time owning up to their faults. When they have no choice because they were caught doing “bad behavior” they immediately become defensive and try to blame someone else. They think that by doing this, they’ll somehow get away with it. Teenagers, more so than younger kids, just don’t want to be told what to do. They hate being caught in the act of bad behavior, and they really hate it when you confront them.

I remember when I was a teenager and I almost failed a subject in school. My teacher sent a letter to my parents and, well, my parents hit the ceiling. I remember being scared and angry at the same time because I was not even given a chance to explain myself. But the truth was that, there was nothing to explain. I almost failed because I got lazy and didn’t do the things I needed to do. So, while my mom was flying into a rage, I was also starting to boil with anger. I began making up excuses for the outcome I was facing. I blamed my teacher for not knowing how to teach and just about anything I could think of. It didn’t work, of course, but I was just so angry at my mom.

Teenagers don’t know how to channel their anger well. So when confronted with a mistake the wrong way, they tend to get defensive, followed by getting angry. They usually don’t admit their mistake and even more rarely do they apologize with sincerity. Have you ever heard your child say “I’m sorry I hit my baby brother but he started it”? This is a child apologizing because he knows you expect it of him, but not because he truly believes it was his fault. There are also cases when your child tries to blame you for what has happened. When you notice this, you might try to explain to him that it wasn’t your fault. This would create a never-ending debate, and you’ll quickly forget what the original issue was. By the time you establish the fact that it wasn’t your fault, you would be too exhausted to go back to the real issue and your child gets away with it…again.

Here’s the big secret with respect to apologies … I’m being partially sarcastic here because the “secret” is pretty obvious once you think about it. Instead of trying to get your child to apologize first, focus on having him admit that he made a mistake. Do this without judging him, because you want him to feel safe making this admission.

When he has accepted his mistake, genuinely, it’s a lot easier to get a sincere apology. Often your child will apologize on his own (without you asking), after he first accepts his mistake. This is no easy task and it requires a lot of patience from you but you will be grateful you did this for you and for your child.

Dealing with child misbehavior can sometimes take a toll on us. I have found a program that teaches you tons of amazing tools to help you deal with your child effectively. Get a copy of The Total Transformation by James Lehman.

Should you Blame Yourself for your Child’s Misbehavior?

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In most cases, when a child misbehaves, the parents don’t usually think that they are to blame. If you are dealing with child misbehavior perhaps you just consider it to be a stage of your child’s development. However, when misbehavior happens too often and it has become a problem, parents start thinking, “Where did I go wrong? I should have done something differently.”

If you are blaming yourself for your child’s misbehavior, you’re wasting time on something that isn’t going to help solve your problem. Simply ask yourself if you have done, to the best of your ability and knowledge, the best job that you could do (at the time). I’m not asking you if you did a perfect job, just if you did your best at that moment in time. Next, ask yourself if you intentionally hurt your child either physically or emotionally. If the answer is “yes”, you have some self-control issues to work out. But otherwise, your intentions were healthy. Perhaps you simply need better tools to develop more effective results.

Blaming yourself for behavior problems is not going to help. It’s far more effective to spend your time learning new tools.

As a parent, you cannot live your child’s life, and you can’t make your child live his life according to your desires. It’s not your life. You can bring a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink You can give your child everything he needs to be ready to face life’s challenges, but it’s still up to him to make use of what has been provided.

You are there to guide and not dominate. Your child should learn how to make decisions as he grows older and learn that those decisions come with consequences. Make sure your child deeply understands that you are always there for him, and will always support him. But when he gets knocked down, he has to stand up on his own. Teach your child to face consequences honorably and be ready to make up for his mistakes. Shielding your child from the harsh realities of life can only harm him in the long run.

Instead of blaming yourself for your child’s misbehavior, it’s better to understand that your child needs to take ownership for his own actions. Teach this understanding to your child – gently, without yelling. You are a teacher, not a prison guard. I’m not saying to become a softy … because you still need to enforce consequences … but there’s no value in losing your temper while you are explaining a logical consequence to your child.

Should I Excuse My Child’s Misbehavior if he has a Disorder?

Children with disorders like ADHD shouldn’t get a free pass to misbehave. You may have to be more patient with your child but that is the extent of it. ADHD kids still understand behavioral rules and need to learn to solve their own problems while behaving in an acceptable manner. Blaming the “disorder” is not going to do you any good.

The best thing you can do, as a parent, is to learn. Continuing education is critical to your success. It never ends. What you can do is learn better parenting skills that can improve your child’s behavior. Some parents think they are failures in parenting. What they do not know is that you only needs the right tools, and a healthy level of desire, to be a great parent.

Dealing with child misbehavior can sometimes be so tiring. I have found a program that teaches you how to solve the major problems with ease. Get a copy of The Total Transformation by James Lehman.

Characteristics of Kids with Behavior Problems

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Children have different ways of being obnoxious or being difficult. It is really important for you to understand the different characteristics so you can properly solve a parenting problem. Let’s face it, you can never really solve a problem if you don’t know what the true problem is. You need to know where your kid is coming from.

Kids will do just about anything to get away with misbehavior. They are quick to blame others to escape trouble for their wrong doing. When this happens, they are playing the role of a victim. Every time you ask your child why he has done something bad, such as hitting a classmate, you’ll get a sob story that makes you want to take his side and excuse the behavior. What parent wants to get angry at a child who was victimized by another student? We all have a soft side for our kids. The moment we know that our child is having a hard time in class we leap to his defense. We want to believe that our child’s bad grades are the teacher’s fault. The truth is, the child just didn’t study, resulting in crappy test scores. If this has happened to you, you are a victim of your own child’s manipulation!

Other kids get away with things because they are “unique” or “special”. Haven’t we all be telling our kids how “special” they are? When your children were only toddlers or preschoolers, having a hard time coping, didn’t you tell them “It’s ok, they just don’t understand you … you’re different than other kids”. Of course your kids are special – all kids are. But, they can turn the tables around on you, and feed this line right back at you as they get a bit older. They’ll misbehave, and then say to you, “You just don’t understand me because I’m different and unique”. Since this is so consistent with what you’ve always been telling your child, you end up feeling guilty.

Instead of ending up with guilty feelings, simply try to figure out where your kid is coming from so you can help. But regardless, no matter how you look at it, misbehavior is still misbehavior. Never make excuses for it. Instead, teach your child how to solve his problems on his own. When kids learn to solve their own problems in more effective ways, the misbehavior stops.

There are still many types of characteristics that children show to excuse their misbehavior. You need to observe and define what they are if you want to effectively get rid of that behavior. Your main role in your child’s life is to guide them because no matter how old your child is, they constantly need guidance.

It is not easy to handle child misbehavior. I have found a program that aims at helping you deal with your child effectively. Get a copy of The Total Transformation by James Lehman.

Be a Parent to your Kids

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Parents in this generation tend to want to be best pals with their kids. Do you fall into this trap? It’s easy to want your child to feel comfortable with you just like he would be with a friend. So you tell your child, “Hey! we’re friends, right? You can tell me anything”. Then, maybe you ran into a situation where your child screwed up. He did something “bad”, and you go switching roles on him, suddenly being the parent. In a flash, you start reacting differently than a friend would. Maybe you get mad, or maybe you just start offering guidance. Whatever you do, your child may feel betrayed because a “friend” wouldn’t act in that way. Friends don’t give each other such a hard time for poor behavior.

Now imagine having been through the scenario described above. Think about the next time you sit down with your child hoping that he’ll open up to you as he would to a friend. It won’t happen. He’ll keep things from you and you’ll be in the dark. It would be more effective to build an open and trusting relationship with your child as a parent, not as a friend.

Here’s another thing to consider: If you have a defiant child, being “friends” will make it difficult for you to overcome this. It may even make it worse. Children who are defiant would think it’s fine for them not to follow rules anymore. After all, you are friends, right? Friends understand each other and make excuses for each other. Your kid will tell you, “I’m not coming home for dinner, and I’ll out all night” (on a school night, no less). You’ll ask “why”, and get a casual answer about a party that’s happening somewhere.

When you finally have to have a talk to explain that such behavior is not OK, your child will feel betrayed. This will give him another reason to be defiant. He’ll blame you for the emotional stress that he is going through. He’ll blame you for bad grades, and all sorts of other problems. These are defiant children we are talking about. These are not normal teenagers who can listen to reason and actually BE reasonable.

Of course you can be close to your child and talk about things, but never expect that you can be tight buddies. Your children don’t need more friends. When they are in school, they have many friends. Your kids know how to make friends; even the shy kids have friends. So don’t try to become just another friend to them.

On the other hand, they only have one set of parents. YOU. So why not just take that role seriously and just be a parent? You can have fun together, talk, go on trips; but as parent and child. Your kids need guidance more than anything and you are the ones that are given that responsibility. Take it and do well in it. Your children won’t have another set of parents if you fail.

Parenting means learning constantly. Don’t hesitate to learn new skills and apply them if you think that it will make your child a better person.

Dealing with defiant children can sometimes take a toll on us. I have found a program that aims at helping you deal with your child effectively. Get a copy of The Total Transformation by James Lehman.

Accepting the Fact that your Child has a Problem

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Do you remember a long time ago when you first held your child after he was born? You then started to imagine how what child would grow up to be. You imagined him saying his first words, taking his first steps, going to school and so on. You believed your child was an angel, and completely perfect. Unconsciously, you set a standard for that child and you expect those standards to be met. As the years passed, every time your child misbehaved, you just thought of it as a “normal” thing that a child does. You probably did your best to solve the problem, and went on your merry way thinking that you’d dealt with it. Maybe you didn’t notice the problem grow into something bigger, nor did you realize that different parenting skills were required.

It is time to wake up and face the truth. Your child has behavior problems that need to be handled firmly and immediately.

I know that many parents have a hard time accepting that their kids have behavior problems. They would rather make excuses as to why their kids act this way or that way. You may have heard yourself saying to a friend or relative, “Johnny is just going through a phase and it is very difficult for him right now” or, “He is coping with being a teenager and he will eventually come around”. I have personally heard these words slip out of the mouthes of many parents. Rejecting the notion that your child’s behavior is unacceptable is not going to help your child. On the contrary, it will only make matters worse.

Remember that children are programmed to manipulate their parents. You probably notice this when your child was young. Back then, you thought it was cute and charming ang that it was a sign of intelligence. If you let it get out of hand as they grow older, you’ll need a lot of Tylenol for your headaches. This might be what you are going through right now. Are you being manipulated into thinking that there is someone else to blame for their actions.

Remember – nobody is holding a gun to your child’s head making them behave in an unacceptable way. But you tend to believe your child in the hopes that the problem will go away in due time. The problem is not time – it is your child’s behavior.

It isn’t his friend’s fault if he comes home drunk. It isn’t the child next door that forced him to start using drugs, or join a gang. You are not a failure because your child hasn’t turned out the way you wanted – and you can ALWAYS change things for the better starting today.

Accepting all these may not come easy, but acknowledging that your child may have deviated from social norms is a good start. All those dreams and hopes you once had for child doesn’t need to fade away. With the right parenting skills, your child can still become that great person you envisioned him to be.

It is not easy to handle child misbehavior. I have found a program that aims at helping you deal with your child effectively. Get a copy of The Total Transformation by James Lehman.

Why your Child is Unmotivated

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Many kids love going to school. Some see it as a place where they can spend time with friends, socialize or goof around. Many of them also really see it as a place to learn so they can have a good future ahead of them. Now, some kids hate schools. They think that school is a waste of their time, it is not pleasant for them and they feel trapped. These types of children just want to hang out with their friends outside the school, stay at home, play computer games, sleep or just do nothing. They don’t do their homework nor study for exams.

Why is it that kids are not motivated?

1. Learning. Each child has a different learning style. I have 2 kids and I have noticed that each one of them studies differently. One learns better through visual aids and the other learns faster with audio. It could be that the teacher’s approach in teaching doesn’t match with your child’s learning style.

2. Neurological Learning Disabilities. This disability affects the child’s learning ability so they just give up or fail their classes. This is sad but true.

3. Psychological Disorders. This includes depression and anxiety. If a child went through a traumatic or stressful experience in his family, his grades would drop.

4. Alcohol and Drugs. These 2 are probably the most common problem in school. The intake of alcohol and the use of drugs make a lot of students lose interest in their studies and other activities that are school related. Marijuana is the most common drug that kids are using now.

5. Social Pressure and Distractions. Many children don’t have enough parental supervision so they get involved with activities that they shouldn’t be involved with. Parents give them too much freedom and are more lenient than they should be. When a child bonds with other children, they are influenced easily.

These are just a few reasons why kids aren’t motivated. But you know what? I personally think that everybody is motivated. All you have to do is find out what motivates your child.

What motivates him not to do anything? In many cases, the reason for laziness goes deeper. They could be harboring feelings of anger, frustration, loss, or think they don’t have control over their own lives. These feelings are at a subconscious level. This is the reason why getting angry or just punishing your child, without understanding the root causes for the behavior, backfires. Your kid already thinks that life is bad enough without you screaming in their ears.

Please get your own copy of The Total Transformation by James Lehman. This is a program that can help you improve your child’s behavior.

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