How Do You Deal With A Rebellious Child

How do you deal with a rebellious child? It is your duty as a parent to make sure that your child is always disciplined.

A rebellious child can be a source of constant worry any parent. You should try to understand the reasons behind your child’s behavior and help them find ways to deal with it.

God calls us to steer and correct our children, not just to punish them, but to teach them better. Rebellious behavior not corrected will only grow with the child.

“Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” Hebrews 12:11

It is a parent’s duty to make sure their child is always disciplined to work towards correcting the behavior. Because as it’s said in Hebrews above, afterwards, discipline yields fruit of righteousness. And that’s all we want for our kids, isn’t it?

How Do You Deal With A Rebellious Child

How do you discipline behavior problems?

Correction and discipline are a necessary part of the training process as we raise our children, and also a very sacred thing. We need to remember that the purpose of it is to bring our child’s heart back into a right relationship with their Heavenly Father. 

Often though, we are guilty of improper correction, which puts a break in the relationship and can lead to losing their heart. Losing our child’s heart is one of the biggest things that leads to rebellion, so we must be VERY careful how we correct.

What should you not do when disciplining a child?

1. Don’t be inconsistent when disciplining your children. 

Once your kids know what the rules are, as well as the consequences for not obeying them, they need to know that those rules or consequences don’t change from day to day. It’s not fair to our kids to punish them one day for a rule they break, then let it go the next day.

Enforcing rules inconsistently sets unclear boundaries, and is like giving them occasional permission to disobey. Inconsistency teaches them to take chances. If you make a rule, ENFORCE IT.

2. Don’t embarrass your children and verbally abuse them

You should never use put-downs, or embarrass your kids when correcting them. Don’t be condescending, or sarcastic. Don’t discipline them in front of others, and don’t talk openly about what they do wrong. It’s important to treat them with respect, even – or especially – when we need to correct them.

3. Don’t respond with anger when your kids need correction.

Constantly responding to our kids in anger is an almost SURE way to lose their heart, opening the door for rebellion to begin. We can’t expect our kids to even WANT a relationship with us, when we constantly push them away with our anger.

4. Don’t enforce rules with discipline when you have little or no relationship with the child.

RULES WITHOUT RELATIONSHIP BREED REBELLION

When we have a good relationship with our kids, they trust that we have their best interest in mind when we have to correct them. On the other hand, if we only relate to them when they need correction, there is going to be resentment. Spending time with our kids, developing that heart tie and strong connection, opens their heart to our training and correcting.

How do you discipline a child that won’t listen?

In summary, to AVOID improper correction:

• Work on keeping a strong relationship with your kids, and keeping their hearts.
• If you tend to lash out with your words, or respond with anger when they have done wrong, check to see if you’ve been inconsistent. Often our anger is a result of letting little things go, and then we blow up. If you DO blow up at them, ALWAYS go back and apologize to them, and make it right. Affirm your love for them.
• Make sure your kids know you mean what you say, and make sure they know that you love them!