Our children are not all sweetness and light all the time. At times they can be a challenge and they will pushing our buttons beyond what we ever envisaged. It can feel like you, the parent, are fighting a losing battle as they keep on pushing back. There may be hot heated verbal exchanges of words and there may even be some physical struggles. I have come across several children who have been blatantly honest with me about how they treat their parents and I have witnessed other children shout, scream and disobey their parents in public places. I have also seen children lash out too using their fists. The parents feel helpless, they give up and end up just letting their child do whatever they want for an easier life. It is a challenge so many parents go through.
Parenting A Challenging Child
When the challenge is too big it is important that you go and speak to a doctor, CAMHS, a parenting organisation, a counsellor, local support groups etc. You need to do this to get support so that:
- You are reminded that you are doing your best as a parent.
- You gain new strategies to use with your child and to get the help your child needs.
- To find out what is going in your child’s head and see why are they behaving like that. They may be going through puberty but there is no excuse for verbal and physical abuse.
- Your child needs to find someone to talk to.
- You need to find that mutual respect again. You need to communicate again using words in a calm manner and to talk about what you both need and want.
Finding support will definitely help you to deal with a challenging child. You will realise that you are not alone but any problems can be solved with time and patience. It will offer a way to start the lines of communication that are essential to solving the problems that arise from dealing with a challenging child.
There are lots of ideas to deal with a challenging child in my book, The Parent’s Toolkit
