Have you experienced behaviour challenges with your children?

No? 

Perhaps they are actually unicorns?

Just kidding, but seriously, we hear from a lot of parents these days that dealing with challenging behaviours is one of the hardest parts of their job. And, one of the most depleting.

We might have tactics to put a stop to challenging behaviours, like confiscating iPads, sending kids to their rooms, and putting them in time-out. We might have strategies to circumnavigate these challenging behaviours, like giving kids your phone to play with if you need them to be quiet while you get something done.

But, do these things actually deal with the behaviours in any enduring way? 

Do they help us to work out why the challenging behaviour is going on?

Do they help us understand what the child needs from us to help them stop behaving in the way they are?

Dr Justin Coulson, ParentTV expert, psychologist and educator, has six daughters himself (for real, we’ve seen them all in one room) so he’s had a fair bit of experience dealing with challenging behaviours (and nit combs!).

So, in a one-hour special event for Parent TV, we got Justin to tackle this particular issue, and give us his top tips for responding effectively to behaviour challenges in today’s kids.

These aren’t more ideas for punishments (because we know they don’t work) or suggestions on how to keep your kids happy and entertained so they never act up (because we know there’s more to it than that!). Instead, Justin drills down into the reasons that kids behave the way they do and the parenting approach that will help stop these behaviours occurring in the first place.

We won’t go into too much detail here because he says it best himself, but trust us, this one is well worth an hour of your time!