6 Ways I Teach My Kid Respect

You are at a restaurant. A woman sitting at the next table snapped her fingers and yelled at the waiter,

Hey, you brought the wrong dish. Youre such a bad waiter. Now go and get me the right dish. NOW.

What would you think of this person?

I dont know about you, but I would think that shes being very rude and disrespectful. Does she think that shes better than the waiter and has the right to talk down to him like that?

Most people I know would not do such a thing to others, whether its their friends or someone they dont know. However, some of them feel completely justified to talk to their children that way. One mother would snap at her son,

Hey, I told you not to do this. Youre such a bad boy. Now go and take a time-out. NOW.

See the irony? Why is there such a big difference in how we treat others compared to how we treat our children?

How To Teach Kids Respect

We cannot teach respect by being disrespectful to our children. Here are 6 things we can do to teach our kids respect.

1. Stay Calm

The other day, my daughter was eating cookies and she wanted to go into my room. Crumbs came out of her mouth as she took every bite. I told her not to go into my room with the cookies. I repeated that request at every step she took on the 14-step staircase. I said it one more time when she was at my door. She ignored it and entered my room with cookies in her hands and crumbs on my floor.

I was angry. I exploded and yelled, Didnt you hear that I asked you not to come in with cookies?

She looked at me, turned around and left my room.

So what is the lesson? That yelling, and only yelling, works with kids who dont listen, right?

Wrong. She didnt listen to me because she couldnt listen to me. I was not in front of her, making eye contact and ensuring she was paying attention to what I said.

Instead, I just sat at my desk and shouted my command, while she was fully immersed in the experience of tasting the yummy cookies. Any leftover focus was spent on making sure she didnt fall down the stairs. She simply couldnt pay any attention to me until she entered the room and saw me.

From my perspective, I thought she heard everything I said but ignored me. I thought she was purposely disrespecting me and my request. So I was angry. My emotion took over. Instead of looking into why she acted that way, I yelled at her.

I was being disrespectful to her.

I was shouting to her from another room not caring whether I was interrupting what she was doing or not. And when she didnt meet my expectation, I acted rude towards her. I showed her that I only cared about my own needs. I showed her that when you were frustrated, you could be rude and disrespectful. That was definitely the wrong message. I was not being a good role model in having empathy, respect and self-control.

Granted, there are often situations where kids really do outrageous or disrespectful things, but it could be because they dont know any better at that age or they miss the cue. Thats where we, the parents, come in to teach them. But how can we teach children to be respectful using disrespectful manner?

To teach respect, first we need to stay calm and stay in control. Identify if this is a real disrespect situation, a misunderstanding or simply because the child hasnt learned the proper response in such a situation.

1. Identify The Cause For Disrespect

When genuinely being disrespected, we should pay attention to the circumstance instead of going off on the child, You are being disrespectful.

Ask why your child acts that way.

Last weekend, my almost 4.5 year old finally achieved a major milestone. She called me a bad mom. She had never called me that before. We dont talk that way in our home. We never called her a bad girl and so she didnt learn to say that until she heard her friends say it recently.

For most parents, that is a very disrespectful thing for a child to say. Justifiably, many of them become upset or angry. They would say, How dare you! You are not allowed to talk to me that way.

These parents are upset. They are called names and they are hurt.

But what is the childs intention when she says that?

Kids usually say that because they are angry. Someone, and its usually you, hurt them. So, out of instinct, they want to hurt you back.

It is usually not malicious because kids (and grownups) cannot think much when they are angry. They just reflexively want to fight back to protect themselves and in this case, they use hurtful words to do that.

I asked my daughter, Why did you say that? Is it because you are angry? She nodded.

Are you angry because I didnt let you have ? She nodded again. I nodded sympathetically, too. With my acknowledgement, I could see her seething anger start to dissipate.

Well, I understand that you are upset. But that doesnt mean I am a bad mom. If other kids are mad at you for something you have done, does it make you a bad girl? She shook her head determinedly.

OK, then you are not a bad girl because other people are upset. So I am not a bad mom because you are angry, right? She nodded slowly absorbing my words.

At that point, I went on to address her needs. She was angry because her needs were not met. I asked her to think of other ways to get what she needed instead of calling me names. I explained to her that hurting others that way wouldnt help reduce her anger much, if at all, and it certainly wouldnt help solve her problem at hand.

By naming and narrating my childs emotions, I helped her understand where her anger came from. I taught her vocabularies to describe her emotions and gave her tools to solve problems. I also showed her that in conflict situations, you could still stay calm, keep a clear head and respond respectfully. Disagreement can take place without being disrespectful.

Isnt this much better than screaming, How dare you! which only addresses the parents own needs to feel respected?

1. Show Them How It Is Done

What better way to teach a behavior than modeling the behavior you want to teach?

Show them how to respect by respecting them. I dont mean calling them sir or madam, or bow to them. Just treat your child as a person in the same way you treat other grownups.

For example, respect their preferences.

Ive heard one father yell at his son for eating the inside of a pie first before the crust because that was the wrong way to eat a pie. True story.

It is ridiculous how some parents want to have complete control over their childs behavior and preferences. Most of us are not this extreme but we still do some variations of preference policing. But if you want your child to respect you, start with respecting their choices.

Everyone has their own preferences. As much as I want my little one to be a mini-me and like exactly the same things I do, she is not. My child has her own liking. I explain my rationale if I dont like what she wants. But ultimately, she has to learn to make decisions for herself. As long as her choice is not a danger to safety or health, is not (too) financially consuming and does not hurt others, I honor it.

That is why I let her make her own choices in things such as her own outfits. She often ends up going to her preschool wearing mismatched socks, pajamas under a dress, a shirt under or over a dress, etc.

Every person has the right to think independently and like different things. That should include children.

When childrens differences are accepted, they feel heard and respected. They see first-hand how to treat others who have different opinions. They learn that they should respect people despite their differences.

This understanding and tolerance for differences will become especially important when the teenage years come. Thats when everything Mom and Dad say will sound stupid to them and you want your child to know how to tolerate and respect you!

1. Kind And Firm Discipline

Discipline means to teach or to train, not to punish. It doesnt have to be punitive. In fact, positive discipline is a lot more effective and long lasting than punitive strategies.

If we discipline using a menacing or stern tone when our kids have done something wrong, we are showing them how to be cruel and harsh to those who make mistakes.

Who doesnt make mistakes?

Imagine if you make a silly mistake at work and the boss talks down to you in a demeaning way. That must feel really lousy, right? Would any of us therefore have more respect for this boss? I guess most of us would say no. The same with children, being harsh or using punitive punishment will not earn us respect.

However, positive discipline is not the same as being soft or permissive. One can be firm and kind at the same time when disciplining. Setting firm boundaries and sticking to them are the keys to successful discipline.

1. Give Them Reasons To Respect

Parenting is one of the hardest jobs in the world. Parents spend so much effort, time and money to care for their little ones. Their entire lives changed and started to revolve around their children the moment they were born. It is only fair and natural that we expect their respect.

But little children dont understand that. And to be fair, they didnt ask us to do all this! We ourselves decided to take on these responsibilities.

If we dont respect them but at the same time, expect them to respect us, that is just hypocritical. Think about a chain smoker asking his child not to smoke.

Respect cannot be demanded. It can only be earned. So, earn it! Give your child reasons to respect you by being a respectful role model, modeling respectful behavior to everyone, including our children.

1. Apologize When You Screw Up

Not that Im saying Im never harsh to my child. As mentioned, I do sometimes scream when Im at my wits end. So I get it. I understand the occasional outbursts in the heat of the moment, especially when were dead tired doing all sorts of grownup stuff, like working, housekeeping, and what else, parenting.

Despite that, I will never use it as the default way to treat my child, nor will I justify doing so is OK or necessary.

Whenever I did lose my temper, I felt guilty and I would give myself a time-out to calm down. Afterwards, I explained to her why I was so upset before. I taught her that having emotion was normal, but screaming was not OK and I said sorry to her.

A mature, respectful grownup takes responsibility and apologizes when he or she makes mistakes.

Final Thought

Treating children disrespectfully will just make them lose their respect for you (think about the mean boss example). If youre lucky and your kids are not the stubborn type, you may get temporary compliance out of them, which may seem like respect.

But it is not.

Years later, when theyre all grown up, you may wonder why your kids dont respect you anymore. That is because you have modeled the disrespectful way well since their childhood.

Admittedly, I sometimes wondered if I should just go the easy route to save myself some time and frustration after telling my daughter not to make a mess a gazillion times. But every time I was tempted to take that shortcut, I reminded myself how I hated it when I was treated like that as a kid and how it would only earn me disrespect. Who says parenting is easy? With this thought, I took a deep breath, recomposed myself and explained the gazillion-first time why it was not OK for her to do that.

Originally posted on ParentingForBrain