self improvement

Adults, Just Stop Whining and Start Managing Kids’ Behaviour As You Should Be!

I can feel a super rant coming on… A little boy’s just started in my class and his behaviour in school is totally dreadful! He’s been allowed to behave like this for years and he’s just had his 8th birthday. Its astounding! Perhaps I shouldn’t be shocked – I deal with cases like this time after time. It’s part of my job of managing the behaviour of children who are so out of control that their next step is to be thrown out of school for good.

Well, this particular child’s behaviour is exceptionally bad…

The rant isn’t about this little boy…. No, he’s not the problem as he’ll be fine before we know it…

No, the real gripe I have is about those in charge of him in his school… the grown ups! Plus those in so many other schools I deal with, who allow these behaviour situations to get so bad. The grown ups are truly dreadful and bordering on useless!

What on earth have they done to make me rant to this degree? They’ve only written to a ‘higher authority’ complaining about this little guy! They can’t be responsible in any way, can they? So much easier to whinge and moan, eh?

And what result do they want? I haven’t a clue but I guess they’d rather he disappeared from their school and got offloaded somewhere else!

Come on Liz, surely that’s reasonable and they’d want him to go to another school? No, it is not reasonable – in fact it’s totally unreasonable… Why? Well, as I’ve said so many times, children’s behaviour is an adult problem. Ok, kids are behaving badly, but why? Because the adults are getting it so wrong, that’s why…

My message to these adults and others who continually whinge and moan about children’s behaviour is that they have to be prepared to take an adult’s responsibility for the problems they’ve allowed to deteriorate into the mess we now have in schools and homes.

So, why do children behave so badly? Easy… simply because they can and they also know nobody is going to do very much about it – apart from a fair amount of whining, that is! And that doesn’t do any good, does it?

The only way children’s behaviour will change is if adults evaluate their own behaviour and make some changes to themselves. They won’t see any alterations in children’s behaviour unless this happens.

So, get a grip. If you don’t know what to do then learn what to do. It’s not difficult. Put your money where your mouth is and start doing what adults should do. Manage kids!!

You’ll be pleased to know that I’ve finished my rant!!

Liz Marsden is a widely experienced and successful children’s behaviour management expert. She uses her expertise to train teachers, trainee teachers and parents to manage children’sren’s challenging behaviour. Visit Liz’s website where you can download her widely recommended book and learn about her behaviour management techniques that are proved to work time after time.