Get your child involved in daily tasks around the house so she learns that everybody works together. "I recommend that parents find things their children can do, whether it's washing vegetables, feeding the dog, or sorting laundry," Kvols says. "You're teaching your child to be helpful, which is one of the most important life skills. We've found time and again that the people who are most mentally healthy are those who've learned to be of service to others." While this may not sound like a discipline strategy, just wait: If you've taught your child to be cooperative, you can call on this quality when you need it.
This echoes a BYU Family Science talk I went to in which President Hinckley counseled parents to do away with chore charts that made family members work alone, individually. He said we should practice working together as a family--in the same room or yard--toward a common goal (for example a clean kitchen, finished laundry, or a weeded garden), because cooperation is the Lord's way (remember the Sesame Street song? "C-op, cooperation..."
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