How to stop nagging your children

Leave nagging behind, with fresh parenting ideas.

Do you find yourself constantly nagging your children just to get them to do the smallest chore? Would you like to ask your children to do something once and have them do it right away? I will share with you some simple tips that you can use right away to start improving your children’s behavior without nagging them.

The importance of encouragement

How often do you say thank you to your children? Children desperately need encouragement so they can feel motivated and loved. As the parent, it’s your responsibility to ensure your children grow up to be confident and self-motivated. You can help all your children develop self confidence by appreciating and acknowledging their endeavors and efforts.

Your child doesn’t need to succeed in all they do. Failures are part of growing up so if your children don’t do well with something and you continue to nag them, they will end up feeling disheartened and they will lose their confidence and won’t want to try again. Your encouragement is what shapes your child’s beliefs, especially in today’s world where your children are faced with intense peer pressure.

Here are some great ways in which you can encourage your children.

1. Say thank you

Catch your children doing good things as often as you can and thank them for doing a great job. A lot of people feel that saying thank you to their children isn’t important. The opposite is true because thanking your child will give them that push they need to try harder. Like us adults, children need and crave appreciation. When you thank your children they will then feel very proud of what they have done and it is a great boost for their self-confidence.

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2. Praise your children

Many times parents are very quick to yell at their children but when they are being quiet and good, they say nothing. Parents need to acknowledge their kids whenever they are being good. Right now, think about how often you’ve forgotten to acknowledge and praise your kids when asked to do a chore and they did so and did it well. No matter the task, praising your children whenever they do a great job is extremely important.

You can praise your children by saying things like “great job”, “well done”, “I’m so proud of you”, “you’re amazing”, “you’re such a fast learner”, and so on. As you begin showing appreciation as they do things well, you’ll see that they will work harder to do it even better.

3. Quality time

Be sure you are spending enough quality time with each of your children. When they feel they are getting lots of your love and attention they will work harder at pleasing you. Each child needs to know how important they are in your life and you can do this by setting time aside each week or month for special quality one-on-one time with them. Do something they love doing and give them your whole attention. Mark it on the calendar and never postpone it. Your children will look forward to this “date” and it makes them feel very special and loved.

4. Listen to your children

A great way to enhance your relationship with your children is through listening to them and keeping up good communication. Listen with your full attention when they tell you about their day, when they talk about their friends and any problems they may be going through. Usually, when children feel their parents are not listening to them, they will go to their friends instead and stop communicating with their parents. What ends up happening is they bottle up their emotions, questions, doubts and feelings. Be very understanding and gentle with them and always listen patiently to them. 

If you want to get more from your life, and are looking for concrete action steps to get you there, check out our Request a Coach page. It’s a “cut the fence-sitting and take action” way to tackle your issues and actually find success. You’ll be matched with the coaches most suited to you to get you from where you are to where you want to be. To get off the fence and start to take action, click or tap here.