Always wondering if you are doing the right thing is part and parcel of being a parent, I think.
I mean, I find myself wondering this at least 47 times every day, from making decisions on anything from bathtime (how often?!), bedtime (how late?!) to if my just-turned-three-year-old eating butter straight from the tub should be a cause for concern.
But much as I wobble on the edge of winging it most days when it comes to my parenting choices, when it comes to really knowing a thing or two about how to raise and discipline you kids, few people have more authority than Supernanny Jo Frost.
Lucky for us she doesn’t mind sharing her knowledge, and recently sat down for a live Facebook chat with HuffPost Parents to reveal just what she thinks are the biggest and worst mistakes us parents make when it comes to disciplining our littles.
Frost biggest no-no? How and for what we discipline.
“Parents can end up putting in rules to control children and giving consequences and discipline that is unwarranted,” she explained.
“The application of a discipline can be a parent trying to control a child’s behaviour rather than encouraging the children to be more self-independent and to communicate better.”
Frost explained that often discipline is therefore misunderstood.
“There are many times I say to parents: ‘Why did you discipline your child and give them a consequence just because you asked them to get up from the sofa and they didn’t?’. It’s got to be about educating them and certainly developing their communication skills rather than always just telling them off.”
The 45-year-old parenting guru also said she often gets asked by parents what type of discipline they should be giving to their children.
“You have to work out what’s valuable to the child and what will educate them,” she explained. “It also depends so much on the age of the child and how much they understand.”
Frost also addressed the topical subject of smacking, something she has spoken out against many times in her TV shows.
“Parents certainly lose their composure in the heat of the moment and smack, but it really just teaches children that if we feel ‘this way’ then we behave ‘this way’ and that’s not good teaching,” she explains. “My take on smacking is not to do so, but continue teaching parents how we can manage our children’s behaviour and expectations.”For more tips on parenting and all things family life, make sure you are also following us over on Pinterest.
