Disciplining children takes different approaches

She has found that what works for one child doesn’t necessarily work for the others.

“I’m a stay-at-home mom with three kids, ages 15, 11 and 8.”

What’s your biggest challenge?
“Raising a teenager. My 15-year-old is down to earth, but sometimes he tries to see how far he can push me and my husband.”

How do you deal with that?
“I take things away from him or ground him where he can’t go out. Taking privileges away works because he’s a social butterfly. He likes hanging out with his friends, talking with them on the phone, texting, Facebooking. If he doesn’t have that, he’s bored. So he tries to stay out of trouble.”

How about your other kids?
“If my youngest gets a mark at school, I have him write 50 sentences about whatever it was he did. If he gets three marks, then he has to write 50 sentences for each one. He doesn’t like writing those sentences, so it works pretty well.”

And your daughter?
“Usually, all I have to do is sit and talk with her. She understands and then changes and corrects things. She really doesn’t get into trouble. Not yet, anyway.”