When Your Child Talks Back - Parenting Strategies

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If you're child's old enough to talk, they're probably old enough to "talk back"! This post discusses common cause for children talking back, and gives 10 positive parenting strategies that can help.


There are many different parenting styles - I dare say there are as many styles as there are parents! That being said, I believe all parenting styles can basically be classified as what I call Old Testament parenting and New Testament parenting.

Men in Old Testament times had a very different approach than the New Testament. They were just. They loved God. They were good. But they were governed only by the 10 Commandments, a list of "shalt nots". The New Testament did not abolish the 10 Commandments, but it fulfilled it by focusing on the greatest commandments of love, and adding the Beatitudes, which, instead of focusing on the "shalt nots" focus on all the things we SHOULD strive for.

Parenting is similar. We can center our style on justice and principle, but focusing mainly on the "shalt nots". Or we can adopt "New Testament" parenting. There's still a place for "shalt nots", and there are times when firm consequences are needed, but there's much more place for cultivating the internal desire to follow God out of LOVE. In my mind, that's what "positive parenting" is all about. It's not about lessening expectations - it's about trying to motivate the child internally and teaching them from a young age how to form their judgment and use their freedom wisely, in keeping with their dignity as a child in the image and likeness of God.

Head over to Eyes on Heaven to read about positive parenting strategies to help kids replace unacceptable forms of speech with respectable ones!

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