3 Parenting Techniques That Work

If you are not already aware we have three Daughters. Our second Daughter or also known as the "middle child" goes through phases of the "Middle child syndrome" as I like to call it. Or she is just being a typical child and acting out in phases. And....we are going through one of them phases at this moment.

It use to be a difficult battle of non-stop punishments using my stern voice which eventually would get very exhausting for me to pointless time-outs. Or early bed times and being grounded from her daily hour TV. These punishments eventually seemed like they were no longer working. Why? She started talking back to me and yelling at me. Now this was not the norm for my V.

As a Mother I took a step back and reflected on my Mothering. Our dear V is a very sweet kind little girl. Something must be off or bothering her. After my reflection on how to Mother with her "acting out" I was going to try something new and pray this worked. Many may think this is wrong but to me I think children sometimes are acting out for love and comfort. Or they just want to be heard.

Here is how I started...

1. I respond with love
2. I give comfort
3. We pray

1.When she would get made at me after a little tiff and yell " I don't like you!" I would respond with, "well I still love you V." It started to throw her game off and she couldn't talk back and didn't know what to do next. Once her lip quivered and she ran up and hugged me and responded with an "I love you too" and off she went to clean her room. Instead of ignoring the "I don't like you" I responded with love and she was heard and ended up listening to me. 

2.  Being a middle child or any child for that matter can be hard. Growing up is difficult right? You remember those days don't ya? I do and just having my Mom or Dads arms around me comforting me just made me feel so much better. I am blessed to experience that. As parents we need to give children more time to comfort them. Before we know it they will be too big.

For example:This past weekend V was acting out again. I responded with love and she needed a little bit more than that. She snuggled up on my lap and I let her stay put for a few and comforted her. We also chatted about what was expected of her after our cuddle time. After comforting my sweet V she went off to do what was expected. It was much better than a battle of arguing.

3.  Praying can almost always help dissolve the situation. Sometimes our V gets upset over a certain situation and before it gets out of hand we pray about it. It sure is amazing what the power of pray can do. Don't you think so to? 


This seems to work great with our V who is a middle child in our family. While I was in reflection I also researched about "middle children" in families and how their roles play out. So how our V acts out all makes sense to me now. She wants to feel love, comfort and to be heard...not left out which is easy for a "middle child" to feel lost in the mix.