Stress-Free Discipline: Simple Strategies for Handling Common Behavior Problems

Many moments in parenting seem unavoidable. Your preschooler will throw fits. Your third-grader will try to get out of doing homework--even if it means lying. A budding tween will dish out insults. And a teenager will simply take off for who knows where. At each stage, they are trying to test your boundaries (and sometimes your patience). While this may be a natural part of growing up, that doesn’t mean any of these actions are acceptable or excusable. So what does a parent do?Stress-Free Discipline knows that the one-size-fits-all discipline methods many experts tout can actually be too narrow for some concerns. Instead, parents need to learn how to determine the root cause behind their child’s issue, which will then help explain what is driving the behavior, why it’s probably more normal than the parent realizes, how to prevent further escalations, and how to instill self-control. Once parents grasp the underlying motivation, they can select the strategy that fits their child's age, temperament, and issue--including role modeling, setting limits, positive reinforcement, negative consequences, disengagement--and deploy it calmly and with confidence. Complete with an arsenal of proven techniques, as well as examples and exercises throughout to help parents personalize to their own unique situation, Stress-Free Discipline is the one-stop resource that will prepare parents for any challenge from any stage. Don’t lead home without it!

SARA AU is a mom and a journalist specializing in parenting and health issues.

PETER L. STAVINOHA, PH.D., is a dad and a pediatric neuropsychologist in the Center for Pediatric Psychiatry at Children's Medical Center of Dallas and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Together, they are the authors of the popular book Stress-Free Potty Training.