Are you tired of nagging and shouting at your child? Parenting can be exhausting, especially when kids don’t listen and cooperate. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Want to learn how to discipline a child without yelling?
Parents worldwide learned a secret.
They’re turning around frustrating situations and making parenting easier—and more fun. They’re also empowering their kids and spending more quality time connecting with their family.
Their trick? These parents made a game of it! As a result:
- Shannon’s school-age kids willingly cleaned up the house.
- Belle turned her son into a car ninja to avoid denting nearby cars.
- Julie’s preschool son stopped fussing in the car.
- Jody prevented a two-year-old meltdown with an impromptu find-the-missing-favorite-dress scavenger hunt.
After reading one short 5-minute chapter from Parenting—Let’s Make a Game of It, they were inspired to parent playfully. The best news is that it didn’t take long.
Here’s what they did.
Examples of Disciplining Without Yelling
Getting Kids to Clean Up
From Shannon (Toronto, Canada)
Thank you for your fabulous ideas. Last night, I needed the kids to help clean the house, fast… they wanted to see a quick episode on TV.
But I really needed the house cleaned up before we had people over. So, here’s what I told them.
“Okay… here’s the deal… I’m going to call out 10 random clean-up tasks each… and 10 for me too. When we’ve each done 10, we’ll watch the show. As soon as you’ve done a task, come back quickly and I’ll give you another.”
The house, seriously, was tidied up in FIVE minutes. Have I mentioned, ‘thank you, Karen!!’??
Avoiding Smacking Nearby Cars
From Belle (Chicago, IL area)
I wanted to share that this week my youngest was opening the car door with vigor and twice bumped another car with the wide-swinging door. I knew I had to nip this habit in the bud before we chipped the paint off a neighboring car.
After overreacting and yelling at them in my panic (which, shocker!, was not effective at all), I gave it more thought. I channeled you and tried to make a game out of it, telling them that the goal is to get out of the car opening the door as minimally as possible, sneaky-style.
Then, when they were out of the car, I’d act incredulous: “How did you get out of the car?!? I didn’t even see the door open. Are you a ninja?”
They are delighted and *fingers-crossed* will continue escaping the car stealthily, keeping themselves and all vehicles involved safe.
Stopping a Child from Fussing
From Julie, Fab Working Mom Life mommy blogger (Honolulu, HI)
This morning we were driving to my son’s OT appointment and he was sleepy and in a bad mood.
To help the situation and cheer him up, I started a little I Spy game, asking him to name things of a particular color he saw out the window.
He really got into it, telling me he saw the grass and trees for something green, and the sky and cars when I asked for something white (no sunshine today, unfortunately, just an overcast day).
Then we started talking about the trucks and I Spy-ing various bulldozers and excavators.
My four-year-old’s mood improved, and we got to the office asking and answering questions, which is also one of our goals for Speech Therapy.
Preventing a Tantrum
From Jody (Miami, FL area)
As you can imagine, my two-year-old granddaughter was sobbing uncontrollably when we couldn’t find her special yellow dress.
While her mom and I frantically searched the house, she only cried and screamed louder.
We could see a meltdown ready to erupt.
After a few minutes of this two-year-old catastrophe, I remembered your trick and clasped my hands and squealed,
“We’re going to play a mystery game! Want to play with us?”
It was amazing. She immediately stopped crying and held my hand while I cheerfully said,
“Is your yellow dress in this drawer? Let’s look! Nope, not in there. Where else could it be?”
Pretty soon she was squealing with us as we went through the house and finally found it in the dryer.
You’re right, it works! The game changed this dreaded event into something fun. Thanks!
Perfect for Busy Parents
Check out Parenting—Let’s Make a Game of It, an Amazon #1 New Release in 7 parenting categories. This entertaining book of 5-minute stories teaches playful parenting playfully. Through quick-to-read, relatable stories, you’ll learn playful ways to encourage cooperation.
- Stop kids from misbehaving and ignoring you
- Make tasks fun so children cooperate
- Create a positive, playful family atmosphere
- Experience more joy with your kids
