Parents ought not to call their children 'naughty' as it knocks their self-confidence, so a childcare expert has asserted.
Annette Mountford is chief executive of Family Links, a parenting organisation, and claims that children are run down by being labelled thus, even when they are misbehaving.
Parents on the other hand ought to shout at their children and call their behaviour naughty, not the children themselves.
They ought to also stop mentioning the "naughty step", a method of disciplining from TV's Supernanny, just in case the child considers that the word refers to them.
She stated that such use of the word "naughty" could affect the child's "mental health". Yet other family groups condemned the charity head's demands. Family Links is funded by the Department of Health and the Department for Education and Skills.
They suggested that families ought to be able to discipline their children.
The editorial team at feemale would suggest that it makes a lot of sense not demonising the child, yet pointing out that its language or/and behaviour is deemed unacceptable. Should the child be somewhat older, the parent can also point out that the reason why his/her behaviour has to be corrected is so that it does not colour behaviour in adulthood and that it is parental responsibility to churn out a decent human being. An excellent way of getting cooperation is to deny the child something enjoyable like playing football or playing with a specific toy for a period of time.
Where is that testing ground for developing decent human beings, home, in the case of parents as well as school where they are also responsible for providing guidance to the child as to how she/he ought to behave.
