Having a difficult time handling children and dealing with their attention-seeking behavior? Dr. SANJEEV KUMAR, M.D., Paediatrics guides you through his expertise.
An attention seeking kid can constitute a serious headache for the parents. Oftentimes we find such kids seeking attention in diverse ways especially through their incessant demands and actions. An attention seeking child may say “Mommy, see the scar I have on my knee”. As the mom falls into the trap, the child may also say; “Mom, where’s my bat”. The demands may go on and on. The child expects the mom to give him or her attention all the time. This can cause serious problems not only for the mom but also for the dad and the entire household and even not let parents talk. Well, the truth is that, an attention seeking child can be properly handled. All you need is to follow the tips discussed below.
- We need to know the reason behind such attention seeking behaviors before we can adequately tackle them. It’s normal for a child to seek approval and attention. However, this could be a problem when it happens all the time. A child may misbehave just to get attention and we may label such a child as too naughty or mischievous. But first we need to understand that attention may also be positive or negative. There could be various reasons for the attention-seeking behavior of a kid. One such reason can be too busy parents, which makes the child feels ignored. Other could be sibling rivalry. Still other could be times when entire family is busy in a family function or a gathering and the child feels unattended.
- As parents, we must never encourage such attention-seeking behaviors all the time. Make it a point not to respond to the child’s call all the time. However, we must attend to the most important needs. This will help the child and the family to re-align the child.
- Learn to strike a balance between the attention we give the child and our busy schedules. We must learn to spend time with our child at some points in a day in order to attend to his or her needs. This minimizes the attention seeking behavior gradually.
- We should not always fall into the trap by responding to his or her every demand. Sometimes, we can nag or tease the child instead of responding to all demands. This repositions him or her to quit seeking attention all the time. We must learn to say “no.’’
- We should always attend to the kid’s positive and necessary demands and then ignore the negative ones. This corrects the child a lot.
- We should always appreciate good behavior each time our child shows that. Reprove him or her for bad behaviors.
- We should never neglect a kid seeking attention in some sensitive matters. We have to attend to such issues and at the same time correct the child in a loving way whenever he or she misbehaves and never lose our temperament. By losing our temperament we teach our child to express anger to gain anything.
Dr. Sanjeev Kumar
Faridabad Medical Centre
Phone: 0129-2980378, Mobile: 9891001441
E-mail: skguma@yahoo.com
We must bear in mind that it’s in the nature of kids to seek attention. The
only problem is that sometimes, they make negative demands in the
name of seeking attention. We should not be totally engrossed in our
work without giving attention to our kid. This can constitute lots of
problem for the child as he or she grows up. By carving out quality time
to stay with the child and not losing our temperament he or she will begin to learn to make the right demands when necessary. w
