GOOD PUPPY

View Original

CONSISTENCY: AN ESSENTIAL PARENTING SKILL

Consistency equals stability and is a key and defining factor for the solid structure children seek. Imagine that structure as an invisible house. If you tell the child that the door is here and the window is there, and where the walls are, the child can imagine the invisible house and play along. The clearer you make that invisible house, the easier it will be for children to adjust to it and find their place within it. If you start changing the position of the walls, the door and the window, children will not be able to keep re-imagining the house to follow the changing parameters and, eventually, the house will crumble.

Both rules and consequences need to be consistent for the message to be clear. If there is a limit, lets call it a “wall”; that “wall” needs to be acknowledged, always. That’s what makes it real. If you only notice it sometimes, that child is learning to walk through walls, and sometimes he will hit solid ones.

Ironically, consistency in behavior, which is what parents expect from their children, can only be learned at home from consistent behavior from the parents.

The GOOD PUPPY System keeps the family playing under fair, pre-established rules and consequences. All it takes is consistency to implement and maintain a healthy structure, clear to all. Children will help keep parents in check and following the simple rules.


From
EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON
The Little GOOD PUPPY Guide Book for Growing Good Kids
By
Gabriel Tito, RMFT & Marina Tito

Learn more about the
GOOD PUPPY Children Behavioral & Emotional System


EXPLORE GOOD PUPPY TOOLS