Why Positive Discipline Classes?

When I walked into my first Positive Discipline parenting class, along with a dozen other parents, I thought I already had enough knowledge (thanks to various parenting books and blogs) to "deal" with the tantrums and the range of behaviors. I thought if I just copied my parents, my kids would turn out fine. After all, my brother and me turned out okay! This class was going to be just the icing on the cake - something extra to compliment my already 'just fine' parenting. How naïve!

Over the course of the 6 weeks that followed, I found out that the very same inter personal skills (my idea of icing on the cake) I wanted to imbibe in my kids, could be taught through the everyday parenting challenges. What I labelled as an unpleasant quality of my child, could be used as an advantage to redirect towards becoming a positive and unique personality trait. This was just the tip of the iceberg. I discovered experientially about winning children over instead of winning over children. I found out experientially about what's happening in the child's world. I participated in experiential activities that made me get into the shoes of my little ones. It was uncomfortable, literally and emotionally!