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Free 2-Week Guide to Ending Defiant Behavior

Your child is openly, blatantly defiant, and your confrontations sometimes escalate to violence. Traditional rewards and punishments don’t work. So what do you do? Starting today, change your mindset about consequences.

By ADDitude Editors Verified Updated on April 4, 2022
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 Your child is openly, blatantly defiant and your confrontations sometimes escalate to violence. Traditional rewards and punishments don’t help; in fact, sometimes they hurt.

So what do you do? Change focus. More specifically, change your mindset about bad behavior and consequences, and manage your own mood to model how to behave in stressful situations. Start here with this 15-step action plan. It will help build the muscle of emotional control, and turn the tide of an explosive household dynamic with tips like:

1. Creating a code word
2. Using movement to defuse a situation
3. Removing the source of aggression
4. Finding the root of the problem
And much more!

With this in hand, you can look forward to one fewer outburst or slammed door each day. Stick with it, learn to accept your child’s and your own imperfections, and know that things will improve.

NOTE: This resource is for personal use only.