Standing Up To A Strong Willed Child
You may have heard people refer to the
strong willed child, but you have no idea what one really is until you
have one of these living under your own roof. Though they are all
different, most are intelligent and very outgoing. This can lead to them
wanting to be ahead of everyone and everything else that they see. They
have strong ideas about what they want and how they want it. Do not
confuse this with what some might call ‘bratty‘, but they can be that
way if parents give in to them all of the time.
When you have a strong willed child in your home, you already know that
you are going to have a hard time with them. You want to start when they
are young with your disciple ideas. This type of child is going to push
you all of the time to see how far they can get before you make them
stop. They want the boundaries that other children follow, but the
strong willed child is not sure where those boundaries might be. So they
push you and see where you stop them. Don’t be afraid to stop them when
you have had enough.
The strong willed child can be a bit hard to handle, to say the least.
What you are going to see is a child that is probably going to go very
far in life because they are so smart and have so much energy. They
often have so much energy that they have no where to direct it. That
means they are going to be getting into trouble more often than other
kids. They are often exploring, but they go too far. The strong willed
child wants to learn everything they can, and they don’t want you to
stop them.
Discipline for a strong willed child is going to have to be just as
stubborn as they are. What I means by that is that you have to set the
boundaries and do not let them get away with going even a fraction of an
inch over the line. When they do, you must back up everything that you
say. If you tell them that they can not go see the Wiggles’ concert
because of a behavior, do not give in and let them go anyway. They have
just learned that you are a push over. Don’t threaten them with
something that you are going to give in to later.
It can be hard to stand up to a strong willed child because you love
them so much, and at times, you feel that you are being too hard on
them. They are going to respond in a positive manner to your boundaries
if you enforce them as you say you are going to. They are going to learn
to respect you, and to look to you for guidance as they grow. The strong
willed child can be a handful when they are young, but they may just
grow up to rule the world.
