Every parent wants a well behaved child, well I’ve yet to meet someone who doesn’t. Anyway I’ve found that introducing a punishment and reward system from an early age (we started at 6 months) helps; although some feel that this system is too harsh and feel that this shouldn’t be introduced until the child is older and then they should be in time out for a minute for each year of their life; so if your child is 2 then its 2 minutes. This is my system, you can make up your own mind:

1. You say no
2. If they carry on, you say no again, and tell them that they will go in/on their time out zone
3. If they still continue, put them in/on their time out zone for between 5 and 10 mins.

Now for the tricky part tantrums, they are usually caused by one or both of the following:

1. Boredom
2. Tiredness

If its safe to do so walk away and ignore it.
But if it isn’t safe, for example in the middle of town:

1. Distract the child- don’t give them what they want as this encourages them to have a tantrum to get what they want, but you could play games such as i spy.
2. Get out of the situation as soon as you can.

ALWAYS PUNISH AT TIME RATHER THAN DELAYING AS THE PUNISHMENT WILL NOT BE EFFECTIVE AS THE CHILD WON’T MAKE THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THEIR BAD BEHAVIOUR AND THE PUNISHMENT!

As my mum is forever telling me prevention is better than cure so here are some handy hints to avoid shopping hell:
1. Involve the child in what you are doing, for example when food shopping give the child their own list and let them get those items when you get to them. In the case of babies make sure you have toys for them.
2. Avoid times when your child is tired
3. Keep trips as short as possible to activities that are not child orientated, like shopping.
4. If you can avoid busy periods

One of the things most people seem to forget is the good behaviour it’s important to acknowledge it, as in psychology its known as positive reinforcement, basically if you reward good behaviour either through praise or a physical reward (e.g. a sweet) the child repeats the behaviour. For older children sometimes reward charts can help, for younger children praise and the occasional physical reward is enough.