Lesson 6. What to do after your child acts out
After the incident of acting out or inappropriate behavior occurs, the most important part of parenting children who are disrespectful, obnoxious or abusive begins: teaching the child how not to do the same behavior again.
This is a difficult task indeed because the child has learned this behavior and uses it as a means of solving difficult problems with peers, adults, authority and responsibilities.
In this chapter, you will learn the skills necessary to:
- Develop goals and objectives to help both you and your child identify exactly what will happen and when.
- Use a simple, structured interview format to help your child identify what triggered the disrespectful, obnoxious or abusive behavior, and how to plan to react differently the next time a similar trigger fires.
- Deal with the child’s attempts to sidetrack or sabotage the interview, and what to do if he gets stuck.
- Get beyond the false apologies and on to more social accountability in the form of amends.