Positive Parenting Tips: Thought # 49

Don't forget to teach your children how to get along with others.

This seems like something that would be learned eventually, but unfortunately that isn't the case. This is a behavior learned by experience and also by positive interference and instruction by other adults. The main interfering adult should be the parent, unless the parent is not present.

Without positive instruction and interference, a child does not understand the proper way to interact with others, which can lead to inappropriate behaviors, such as kicking, biting, hitting and teasing other children.

Understand that it is not the offending child's fault that he or she does these things if no positive instruction, interaction, and interference has been taught.

When parents don't teach their children the right way to interact, it also leads to a cycle of children who react to each other negatively. Children repeat others by nature, so if we aren't teaching our children social skills at an early age, it leads to them and other children interacting negatively.