What is positive parenting?
Positive parenting is about understanding children’s behaviour and how to help kids develop in a healthy way. It includes preventing child abuse as well as taking steps to support a child’s development by encouraging good behaviour, reinforcing proper values and using reasonable discipline when it’s appropriate.
Positive parenting and discipline involve:
- Positive reinforcement – letting kids know when they have behaved well
- Modelling – setting a good example for kids about how to act
- Being consistent – creating an environment where children know what to expect, what’s right and wrong, and how to behave
- Taking time outs – removing a child (or adult) from a situation to let everyone ‘cool down’
- Giving logical consequences – making sure that discipline suits the situation and is reasonable (e.g., no parent can send a child to his or her room for two weeks)
Learn more about positive parenting, and how children develop.