Parenting Advice: How to Say No to Your Kids

Any parent knows that parenting is far from being easy; it does have great joys but parenting is a lot of work. There are many parenting tips out there and some are helpful, some not so much.

One area that I found I need the most parenting help in is how to say no to your kids; it does not matter if your child is a toddler or an adult, I found it can be a struggle to say no to the children at times. However, I have done a lot of reading in regards to parenting skills and parenting tips, I have found there are ways to say no to your child and be effective at it.

Although I am definitely no parenting expert, I feel like some parenting tips have been very helpful with encounters that I have had with my children and here are some of the most effective ways that I have found to say no to my kids.

Parenting Help #1: No Means No

It is fairly easy to say no and hear it come out of the mouth the first time, but I have the difficult part has come in when trying to stick to the word no. However, as difficult as it is, saying no and sticking to the idea of no is imperative. If you say no and then yes if a child begs, cries and annoys long enough, that child learns real quick how to get you to change your answer. So when you decided that the answer is no, make sure you mean it.

Parenting Help #2: Set up Boundaries Ahead of Time

I have found that when I anticipate a setting where there could be some conflict with my children, I talk to them ahead of time in regards to what will happen. For example, when my children were younger and I needed to shop in a large discount store where I knew there was a large toy section, I would tell my children ahead of time that I needed to run into the store for groceries and although we could take a look at the toy department, we would not be purchasing toys on that particular day. I also would tell my children if they felt like it was going to be a problem, we would not even go into the store department. Sometimes my children would agree to just look at toys and other times they would choose to not go into the toy department because they knew they would not be able to get any toys.

Parenting Help #3: Talk About the Money

There have been times when I talked to my children about the financial situation and explained that I just did not have the money to purchase additional items that they may be wanting. I have never went into any deep conversation about the specific financial situation but instead talked with them in general terms of our family not having the money to purchase items that were not imperative. Most of the times, my children were pretty understanding and sympathetic to the financial situation and understood that at the specific time, we just did not have any extra money.

Parenting Help #4: Say No and Let It Go

There were times when I said no to my kids and a pouting rampage ensued, I have found that if I kept harping at my children and reminding them of their inappropriate behavior, things only escalated. However, I have found if I reprimand them at the time of their inappropriate behavior and then let it go after that, the behavior seemed to improve. I am very aware that each child and situation is different but saying no and letting it go seemed to work well with my children.

Sources:

Self-experiences