How To Deal With Other People Disciplining Your Kids

Parenting is full of endless rewards, but also faces us with never-ending challenges. Of those challenges, one of the biggest is our children's less than desirable behavior. Even though we wish our kids behaved like perfect angels all the time, they are bound to make mistakes sometimes. After all, they're only human, too.

As parents, we have to spend so much of our time trying to make sure that our kids are going down the right path because know it's super important to correct their bad behavior and teach them how to learn from their mistakes.

But what should we do when our kids are acting up and we're not the ones who scold them?

Seeing other adults discipline OUR kids can be incredibly frustrating, especially when the person doing the disciplining isn't even a teacher, close family friend, or relative. It doesn't help that the discipline isn't always warranted.

Parenting expert Tara Kennedy Kline stresses that when it comes to parenting, it can be hard to deal with outsiders trying to scold our kids. But there are a lot of things that go into the situation. For starters, if the person who is scolding our kids is someone that we trust (such as their teacher or principal), then that's another story. The children have to understand that there are other adults that they have to listen to. However, if a total stranger at the mall comes up to your child and starts yelling (especially when we're not even sure what the problem is), we have to put our kids' safety first. After they explain what they think your kid did wrong, you have to make sure that the person knows that you understand and will take things from there. The key to handling people who try to scold your kids is to stay calm and access the situation. If we're being honest, blowing up may just end up making things worse.