Читать книгу The Good Behaviour Book - Марта Сирс - Страница 29

What does playing have to do with discipline, you may wonder. Play helps you know your baby’s capabilities and age-appropriate behaviours at each stage of development. It sets the stage for you and your baby to enjoy one another. It opens the door to a valuable discipline tool you will need at all stages of your child’s life – humour. To smile, laugh, and giggle your way through a situation sidesteps a conflict, gets the child’s attention, opening his mind to your discipline. You want your baby to grow up to be a happy person, so it follows that you want him to have lots of practice being happy. And nothing makes a baby happier than to play with mum or dad. If the child is used to following instruction during play, he is likely to listen to you during correction.

Play is part of discipline.

Playing together gives your baby the message, “You are important to me”, a valuable feeling for growing self-esteem. Peek-a-boo, stacking blocks, doing puzzles, playing pretend helps you get behind the eyes of your child and view things from her perspective – a valuable discipline tool for you to learn. Play brings discipline down to earth. With the proliferation of parenting classes and the overemphasis on “techniques” of modern discipline, it’s easy for parents to get caught up in the science of discipline yet overlook the simplicity. Much of discipline is just being with your baby enjoying the simple things of life.