Consistency not emotion.

On our kitchen bench sits a perpetual calendar - 365 Best-Kept Parenting Secrets.  Each day, the calendar offers up some words of parenting wisdom - some advice is not so new, but there are some words of wisdom that really make me think and challenge me as a parent.  Like this morning's daily "secret":

Remember that discipline has to do with right and wrong, appropriate and inappropriate behaviour - not with the emotional condition of the parent.

So many times I find myself tired and as a result, short-fused and cranky. The last thing I feel like dealing with is inappropriate behaviour.  Usually when I am in this frame of mind and a situation arises that requires discipline, I find myself reacting in one of two ways :

1. Over-reacting by raising my voice and perhaps disciplining in such a way that is not helpful to the child or doesn't "fit the crime" (so to speak); or
2. Letting the incident slide because I'm just too tired/busy/(insert emotion here) to deal with it.

As a parent, I know I'm only human and have my "off" days (sometimes I have more "off" than "on"!) just like my children do.  And that's okay. But disciplining according to my emotional condition is in no way beneficial for my children. It not only creates inconsistency in my parenting, but it has the potential to foster a sense of insecurity in my children because the boundaries of acceptable and unacceptable behaviour keep moving.

It doesn't happen all the time, but it does happen.  Today's quote was just a reminder that when I am tired etc, I still need to remember the bigger picture of what my parenting goals are.

Do you sometimes discipline based on your emotional condition?