Defiant Behavior: Understanding Defiant Behavior and Its Development

Babies in their infancy are a lot easier to care for. You simply feed, bathe, clean and dress them and soon enough you’ll have a happy and contented baby in your arms. In fact, the very innocence of a baby can give you a lot of fulfillment in nurturing them. There are times when you eagerly await their next stage of development. Little do you know that part of this development will also include a certain development of defiant behavior as he acquires more skills. 

Soon enough the nursing infant becomes a toddler. His development now involves much activity. Crawling and ambling until he fully masters the skill of walking. He can now reach for things and climb up wherever he can and only the grown-ups can foresee the dangers in some of his feats. Hence, it is natural for us to restrict certain areas which his young mind cannot fully comprehend. Our little baby will now form a defiant behavior common in children of his age.       

A baby cannot comprehend the essence of all our restrictions. We often stop him from touching this or from doing that. He had been used to having everything for his pleasure. His failure to understand the limitations and restrictions has slowly formed a defiant behavior in him because he had been used to having his own way.    

To resolve this we teach him the art of communication. This way, we will be able to get the message across. As we patiently explain things and aid them with enough visual tools, the child will soon understand and soon ease out of his defiant behavior. Nevertheless, since the child has put a great deal of trust in our words, we must be consistent in demonstrating or practicing what we preach. Otherwise, his defiant behavior will again surface because the inconsistencies will tend to confuse him.        

Raising a child is not just a matter of telling him or her of what to do or not to do. Once we fail to prove that what we are teaching him is right, we will now start having the problem of defiant behavior re-surfacing again. This is all part of human intelligence and we all passed through this.

In time, they will become teens and young adults and will be more daring. Remember how you were during that stage, perhaps you will be able to recall how your parents were able to handle you and your defiant behavior. Did they allow you to commit your mistakes so you will learn life’s lessons via the hard way? 

Did your parents move heaven and earth just to prevent you from committing mistakes? Your defiant behavior ignored the fact that your parents were only trying to shield you from harming yourself or even destroying your future. If your life turned out well, then your parents must have done a good job of handling your defiant behavior. 

All you need to do is to recall them and probably do the same in handling the defiant behavior of your young adult.  

For more useful information, please visit our website: THE KNOWLEDGE BASE, and look for the FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS  section.