Punishment For Kids Who Don’t Respond To Punishment

So, you tried disciplining your child and they shrugged it off. It could be that your kid doesn’t respond to traditional punishment. Some parents might be tempted to call such a kid a stubborn child, or just plain bad. They react to timeouts and other consequences with indifference. Or as teens, they practically yawn at a raised voice. When that kind of stubbornness occurs, parents become frustrated and retaliate with more severe punishment out of anger or spite, which isn’t very fair or, frankly, effective.

Effective Discipline Isn’t Just About Punishment

According to behavior analyst Christi Campbell, getting a kid to react remorsefully to a harsh punishment isn’t what’s needed at all. “When a child doesn’t seem to care about discipline, it means there is a mismatch between the reason the child is being punished and the punishment that was given,” says Campbell. “Often, parents think that isolating the child by sending them to their room will be effective. However, there are times when sending a child to his or her room only serves as a retreat from the chaos of the household, which is not always a punishment.”

Parents would do better to realize why the unwanted, discipline-worthy behavior occurred in the first place if they want to find an appropriate punishment for kids. It also turns out that finding out why a kid misbehaves in a situation helps avoid that behavior in the future.

“Proactively, laying out expectations in a concrete way can be effective to avoid the need for punishment on occasion,” suggest Campbell. “This also eliminates the parent as the ‘bad guy’ since the expectations are in black-and-white and the child is now in charge of choosing to do the correct thing, not just because the parent is ‘policing’ them.”

Punishment Needs To Be Strategic

Trying to minimize parent-child conflicts and taking a child’s concerns seriously isn’t babying them. It’s the foundation of many ‘zero discipline’ strategies, and what is parenthood but trying to teach children to make good decisions? But sometimes patterns of unacceptable behavior persist, and kids need to be disciplined. The key to finding an effective course of action is to ground it in consequences that naturally derive from their actions.

“The punishment should be related to what the child did and why they did it and needs to be immediate so they connect it with the ‘crime,’ especially so, the younger they are,” advises Campbell. “Did the child not clean up their room? Maybe they can clean their room and the living room for the next week. Did they come home late without calling? They need to call once an hour the next time they go out.”

If the child’s behavior hasn’t improved, the new punishment isn’t really getting to the core of the issue either, and parents should try another tactic. If the behavior does improve, good. The punishment is effective, and parents should remember to praise kids for their improved behavior.

“Avoid the power struggle. You know you’re in charge,” says Campbell. “Beating them over the head with it will not help your cause. It will only undermine the team mentality of your family.”

Punishment for Kids Who Don’t Respond to Punishment

• Try something different: If punishment doesn’t work at discouraging bad behavior, there’s no reason to keep doing it.
• Be clear about expectations: Give kids a chance to succeed by reminding them what is expected of them.
• Embrace natural consequences: When the punishment is specific to the offense and logical, kids have a better chance of modifying their behavior.
• Praise the right actions: Don’t just punish the wrong behaviors. Make a habit of praising good decisions.
• Avoid the power struggle: Holding it over your kids’ head will undermine team mentality in your family.