How to punish a child when they have done something wrong.

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So I have 3 children, age 10, 4, and a 20-week old baby boy. and on a number of occasions, I get asked by other parents how I have created such well-behaved kids. Now I am not saying that they are perfect as they do have their moments like every child but We get complimented on how well they behave them selves.

So 11 years ago we found out that my wife, who was my girl friend at the time was pregnant, there was a lot of things running through my head at the time like how am i going to be a dad, what happens if this happens and what happens if that happens, At the time I was young only 24 and all I was bothered about was going out and getting drunk enjoying life and seeing my girlfriend for some alone time :)
I did not feel like a dad and I really was not ready for that change in my life, I would go in and out of jobs as I really didn't care about anything about my self. then one day in February my life changed I witnessed the grossest thing ever and that was the miracle of child birth. at the time all I could think was how this baby's head was ruining my happy place. the birth was stressful as I bet most births are, my daughter was born with her cord around her neck, she was purple in color and there was no movement the nurses took her to a table and hung her upside down while they rubbed her back. it felt like a life time had gone by, I asked is she alright and was told by my mother in law to shut up. I was so scared that my child was dead, then she let out this little cry. Writing this has put goose bumps on my arms as it brings back the memories of that early morning.
the nurse past our child to my wife who had a hold then my wife passed her to me, I looked down at this small wrinkly thing and I remember thinking to my self, I am never going to let anyone hurt you. I started to cry and I knew there and then that I had to grow up and be a Dad, it was like something had clicked in my head.

So ten years have passed since that day and we have 2 more children, and they argue about little things, It got to the point were it was getting too much for me and my wife as all it seemed we were doing was shouting all the time, this would make us argue putting stress on our relationship.

We were sat watching the TV one night and a program came on the telly called super nanny, It was interesting and we both looked at each other and kept watching the show. the lady on the program gave pointers on how to discipline a child when they act up. after watching this for a few weeks we talked about maybe we should put some of these actions in place and see if it worked.

and you know what? it did.

we would put each child on the bottom step for as long as their age was, so my 2 years old would get 2 minutes and my 8 years old would get 8 minutes, before they got off the step they would have to say sorry for what they had done and then after a hug the day went on. Now the challenge was keeping a 2 year old on the step but we found after 3 weeks it worked, we even started counting and if we got to 3 step time it was. These days we get only to 2 and they stop which is great. don't get me wrong some times we do get to 3 and we still put them on the step.
my youngest daughter once put her self on the step after she did something wrong and we did not know why she was sat on the step. we asked and she said, "daddy I pulled the head of a Barbie so I am sat here for a while".
mine and my wife's relationship has got stronger as we communicate more and put things in place. when they are naughty 3 times in a day they loose treats like tv at night before bed, iPad, or daddy and daughter time.
daddy and daughter time started a few years ago I would work 60 hours a week and never got to see my family and my kids got up set, so I would make sure that every night I was at home I would put an hour and a half of time to do something with the girls, It's great because we do all sorts of things together.

so when your kids are bad try the naughty step, remember it does not work straight away and it's something that took time and effort to make work.

Thanks for reading Drew