Raising a Strong Willed Child
You may have heard people refer to the strong willed child, but you have no idea what one really is until you have one of these living under your own roof. Though they are all different, most are intelligent and very outgoing. This can lead to them wanting to be ahead of everyone and everything else that they see. They have strong ideas about what they want and how they want it. Do not confuse this with what some might call ‘bratty‘, but they can be that way if parents give in to them all of the time.
When you have a strong willed child in your home, you already know that you are going to have a hard time with them. You want to start when they are young with your disciple ideas. This type of child is going to push you all of the time to see how far they can get before you make them stop. They want the boundaries that other children follow, but the strong willed child is not sure where those boundaries might be. So they push you and see where you stop them. Don’t be afraid to stop them when you have had enough.
The strong willed child can be a bit hard to handle, to say the least. What you are going to see is a child that is probably going to go very far in life because they are so smart and have so much energy. They often have so much energy that they have no where to direct it. That means they are going to be getting into trouble more often than other kids. They are often exploring, but they go too far. The strong willed child wants to learn everything they can, and they don’t want you to stop them.
Discipline for a strong willed child is going to have to be just as stubborn as they are. What I means by that is that you have to set the boundaries and do not let them get away with going even a fraction of an inch over the line. When they do, you must back up everything that you say. If you tell them that they can not go see the Wiggles’ concert because of a behavior, do not give in and let them go anyway. They have just learned that you are a push over. Don’t threaten them with something that you are going to give in to later.
It can be hard to stand up to a strong willed child because you love them so much, and at times, you feel that you are being too hard on them. They are going to respond in a positive manner to your boundaries if you enforce them as you say you are going to. They are going to learn to respect you, and to look to you for guidance as they grow. The strong willed child can be a handful when they are young, but they may just grow up to rule the world. |
