Discipline discussion

So we had a very disciplined discussion this month.

The reading highlights that I did:

One of the standouts was Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline by Becky Bailey, PhD. It really emphasized good, clear communication skills that frankly I'm able to put to use at work as well as with my toddler. I did get a bit bogged down on how she's labeling her approach ie, the 7 powers for self control vs. the 7 discipline skills but within each it was concisely written and helpful. It reminded me of the work of Marshall Rosenberg. His Center for Nonviolent Communication is http://www.cnvc.org.

Mary Sheedy Kurcinka has 2 books I read. I read Raising Your Spirited Child last year and found it insightful. For this group I read Kids, Parents and Power Struggles. There is a fair bit of overlap between the 2 books. She does rely heavily on personality type, trying to decipher both yours and your kids and adjusting your behavior appropriately. I think that will be of more value as my kid gets older.

See my previous post about Playful Parenting by Lawrence Cohen, PhD.

I did read some 'regular' discipline books such as Drawing the Line by Michael Weiss, PhD and Sheldon Wagner, PhD. Their whole book is easily summarized - any behavior you've identified as a problem is solved through as many short time outs as it takes to change the behavior. That just left me with wondering with what happens when your kid is physically too big to carry around? It didn't leave me feeling like it added to my skill set. Also, Dr. Karp's Happiest Toddler on the Block. I was underwhelmed by that one - poorly arranged and simplistic. Besides, I already have the happiest toddler on the block since I have the only one.

A good book list for more ideas is on the gentle discipline forum for Mothering magazine. You can join here.

So after all that reading I'm going to do another post next week about how I'm attempting to transform myself into WonderMom through better communication.