Session Notes

What to Expect from Your Child: Age-Appropriate Discipline:

“Time-Out. Many parents use time-out for all behaviors all the time. However, for time-out to work, it should be used as one tool in an arsenal of other discipline techniques for ages 2 to 8. Some basic guidelines for time-out include: Make it short — 1 minute for each year of your child’s age.Eliminate reinforcers. Your child should not be able to play, watch television, etc. Use a timer. Restart the time if your child leaves time-out.Use other discipline techniques if time-out does not work. Removal of privileges. Taking away toys, activities or outings can be an effective way to manage inappropriate behavior for children ages 18 months and older. To make sure this technique works for you: Choose a meaningful privilege that your child will greatly miss.Follow through on warnings to remove privileges. Remove the item for a short amount of time (differs by age — several hours for a 2-year-old but several days for a 12-year-old).”

The Essentials of a Healthy Home: The Vitamin of Discipline:

“In the same way, when your child messes up, don’t break the peace of your home. Step off the penalty – and do it consistently. Don’t reason with the little guy. Discipline him. If you withhold discipline from your child, you may regret your choice when he hits his preteen years and decides he just doesn’t want to listen to you anymore. When there are no painful consequences to disobedience, children find it much easier to tune out their parents. Many times, we as Christian parents think disciplining our children simply means that we don’t allow our kids to do or watch certain things. There’s a place for prohibition. But that is not the core of discipline; rather, it’s to find a way to help the child experience negative consequences proportionate to his bad behavior. And the goal is not to control or break the will. The goal is to build within our children a wise, internal standard that will guide them when they have to make moral choices on their own.”

Just Us :

“No. There’s no one else. I don’t want to date anyone else. I want it to be just us.’ I began to hear the Theme from Rocky in my head. ‘Really? What changed your mind?’ ‘Time changed my mind,’ she said. ‘I just needed more time to think and more time with you. I wasn’t interested in anyone else, but I just wanted to make sure this was where God was taking me. I had to pray and seek God and try to follow His lead. Thank you for being patient with me while I figured this out. I hope it wasn’t too frustrating for you.’ ‘God was helping me, too. You bring out the patient side of me,’ I said.”