Most of us recognise the familiarity of a power struggle between ourselves and our children over getting dressed appropriately and on time. But with a quick set of adjustments to the way we handle the situation we can soon turn the situation around.

Here is a sample of some of our easy and effective tools for solving this issue

This works really well:

GIVE A CHOICE:

• Allow your children to feel some control over their lives by asking them to choose between two options that suit you.
• Example: “Would you like to put your socks or your top on first?”
• By empowering our children this way and making them active in the decision making process, we will find that they are less likely to want to engage in power struggles.

Here is another suggestion:

“I” STATEMENTS:

• Make a statement that you can actually enforce – remember it is not a threat but rather a non-negotiable statement of what you will be doing regardless of your child’s behaviour.
• For example: “I give breakfast to children who are dressed” or “My car leaves in ten minutes and I take children with me whether they are dressed or not.”. (N.b If your child is still not dressed within this time, take the clothes that are needed for the day in a plastic bag and in most cases, your child will have put the clothes on before you have reached your destination. If they don’t, they are likely to be much less reluctant to having you help them put their clothes on when you arrive at your destination. Rest assured that were this to happen, it will only happen once!
• Remember that it is important that your enforceable  statement  needs to start with “I” or “my” (and if speaking for the family or couple, it starts with “we” or “our”).

These are just a few examples of our Best of Parenting Tools. You can find more ideas and solutions to typical parenting challenges in our book ‘Kids Don’t Come With a Manual – The Essential Guide to a Happy Family Life‘.