The other day, I was lecturing Darren. My youngest boy’s understanding of spoken Mandarin is not too good and at that moment of anger, I have forgotten. As I finished rattling in Mandarin, I was wondering why his face looked so peaceful (when he was being lectured). Then he bent towards me and said “Mummy, what you say har? What do you mean by XXXXX?”

Then I realized that he did not understand a word that I had said! You could imagine my impatience then.  On other occasions, when I was telling him not to repeat his mistakes, his typical reactions would be either to look at me as if nothing has gone wrong  and so repeat his mistakes right before our eyes or instead keep asking endless innocent questions over my “lecture”. 

It occurred to me that perhaps my “lecture” is too much for such a young boy to bear and remember. Then we tried being stern but brief and he started to shed tears and pretend to be tired/sick before we could continue.  Hence, we started to introduce other methods of discipline like banning him from his favourite games when he becomes disobedient.

When your child gets real stubborn or refuses to understand what you are lecturing, what do you do?

I can't hear or understand what you say.

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