If you have children they have talked back to you at some point in their lives. Putting a stop to this at an early age can prevent bigger problems in the future. It is important for your children to understand that you are the authority in their lives and you will always have the final say. Teaching them to have opinions or to even question things is important, but teaching them to respect you and your authority as their parent is even more important.
So, how can you teach your child to stop talking back and challenging your authority? This is not an easy task, but it is an important one. Understanding that most times when your child lashes out at you it may be that there is an underlying issue. You child is expressing frustration, anger, or even confusion at the task he has been asked to do. Although your initial reaction may be to reprimand and lash back out of your own anger and frustration, a more effective approach is to get to the bottom of the real issues.
First off, keep your cool. Do not react to your child’s negative behavior. To teach your child respect, you must practice some respect of your own. Do not allow yourself to be intimidated by your child either. Calmly explain to your child the consequences that may happen if his negative behavior continues and then follow through with the consequences if the behavior does continue. This will also teach your child that you respect yourself enough not to be manipulated by him.
Offer your child choices. Giving your child some say-so in his day-to-day life may alleviate some of the negative behaviors. Of course it is important that you are only offering acceptable choices. For example, allow your child options such as “do you want to pizza or tacos for dinner tonight?” You have given your child the opportunity to make a choice but have only offer a couple of choices rather than leaving an open-ended choice such as “what do you want for dinner tonight?”