Mother, Baby & Kids

How To Make Your Stubborn Child Listen: Reverse Psychology

Making your stubborn child listen to you might just be one of the most difficult things ever. Most parents are likely to go through this phase at some point of their lives. Your child just won’t listen to you no matter what. It’s as if they love seeing you get worked up and frustrated.

The solution to this issue may just be reverse psychology. As a person who have used this method before, Mr. Lee, 50, father of two daughters, can assure you that it is definitely effective. Due to this clever method of raising his daughters, he no longer has to say something twice to make his daughters listen.

However, if you think that Mr. Lee is a strict parent, he is absolutely not one. He knows when to have fun and when to be firm with his children. This helps his two daughters know when not to overstep boundaries.

Highlighted


“Don’t run, come here!”

Sounds familiar? Children tend to run away the more you tell them not to and it can get very frustrating to yell at them in public. Of course, Mr. Lee would attempt speaking to his children in a calm way, politely asking them to stop running further away for the first few times.

However, when speaking nicely does not work, he would result in applying his strategy. Mr. Lee would encourage his child to keep going (wave goodbye to her) and then pretend to leave himself. This causes panic to rise in the child and she would immediately run back to him.

Not only did the trick work on his own daughters, he tried it out on his stubborn nephew and it was just as effective. The point is to remain unaffected and encourage them to do what they want. This would somehow cause them to change their mind.

Let Kids Learn On Their Own

Children also love touching things that may be dangerous to them like a hot glass of drink. It gets pretty tiring when a parent has to constantly warn a child not to touch the object. Even when holding or pushing the object out of the child’s way, it’s annoying when they still want to reach for it.

Mr. Lee was fed up with his daughter’s never ending pursuit of the hot glass. He decided to let her experience what it is like burning her hand on the object since she wanted it so much. Casually, he grasped her hand and lightly pressed the back of her palm onto the hot glass.

The child screeched and pulled away immediately. This is enough to scare her and ensure that she will never dare touch another hot object when her parents warn her the next time. Sometimes the most effective way for them to learn is by letting them feel it themselves.

A ‘Shocking’ Lesson

This may be very common for curious kids, they just love poking their fingers into electrical wall sockets. No matter how many times parents can warn them not to do that, it would be totally useless. Same goes to Mr. Lee’s daughter who did not listen when her father stopped her from doing that.

For the thousandth time that she attempted to insert her finger into a wall socket, her father had given up reasoning with her. He watched in amusement instead as she proceeded doing what her father always told her not to. The child learns her lesson the moment she got mildly electrocuted. Since then, she never goes near any sockets she see again, fully knowing the consequences of her actions.

Of course I don’t like seeing my girls harmed or injured in any way but you’ll understand how I feel when your child just won’t listen to you. The best way for them to know why you stop them is by letting them do what they want. They’ll learn instantly this way, trust me.

Reverse psychology is commonly used to discipline children and make them listen. It is important to know that it cannot be often used or it will be ineffective. Only use the method if your children is being very difficult and you feel it’s the right time to use it.

For more parenting tricks and tips, please visit Motherhood.com.my.