When our children are disobedient, it’s guaranteed to push our buttons. After all we’re meant to be the ones in charge. Whatever your child’s age, it’s important to be consistent when it comes to discipline. I’m guilty of not doing this and it has probably resulted on making discipline harder on myself.

There are so many different aspects in raising happy healthy children and discipline really is one of the hardest parts.

Krystabelle is now four years old and her behaviour seems to be getting worse the older she gets. I have been trying to teach her that her bad behaviour has consequences and will not be tolerated.

I feel that sometimes we as parents can get so carried away when trying to discipline our children, but I’ve learnt that no matter how much I shout or send Krystabelle to the naughty step, it doesn’t have any effect at all.

I’ve decided to write a list of five ways to handle a disobedient child in hope it may help others. But what might work for one parent may not work for another. But here goes:

1. Try and remember that you can’t control others, not even your own child, but you can control how you respond to them.

2. Try not to repeat yourself. When asking your child to do something, make sure you have their full attention and if they don’t want to listen to you the first time, instead of repeating yourself and getting angry, try walking them through what you’ve just asked them to do.

3. Be consistent. Whatever consequences you give your child, try and always be consistent with them, this way they will start learning that there are always consequences to their actions.

4. Lower your expectations. Try not to expect too much from your child, especially at a young age.

5. Give your child choices. This is one of my favourites, my husband actually came up with this idea, I think he may have read it somewhere. But giving your child choices is a really good one when it comes to meal times. If they refuse to finish their dinner, tell them they must eat a little more, and ask if they would rather have four more mouthfuls or five more mouthfuls. They will usually chose the lowest number and will eat their chosen number of mouthfuls too.

Will my top 5 ways help tame your wild child? Probably not but they will definitely help with how you as a parent cope and will hopefully stop all the yelling.