Here are some of the words our WHN nannies used to describe themselves at our Positive Discipline training this past weekend:

Happy, loving, caring, patient, calm, consistent, positive, responsible, self-motivated, organized, respectful, nurturing, confidant, reliable. They also said they were good listeners, good communicators, good multi-taskers, and good planners. They believed in teaching good manners and instilling a love of reading. They agreed that having a sense of humor was a must.  It was an impressive gathering to be sure.

I learned a lot about everything my husband and I did wrong in the discipline department. I texted both my children apologies right after the session. The quote from Rudolf Dreikurs: “A misbehaving child is a discouraged child” really got me. Can I please suggest strongly that parenting classes are a really good idea since kids don’t come with manuals? This child-rearing is not easy no matter how old your children are or how smart you are.  New and better theories are always evolving.

Way back when, discipline was mainly punitive and physical. Then we had years of the naughty chair or the time out step. Often the punishment was harder on the parents than the kids.  To discipline is to teach and we all could all learn more and better ways to do just that!