This is the last five tips:

6. Foster your child’s independence. Setting limits helps your child develop a sense of self-control. Encouraging independence helps him or her develop a sense of self-direction. To be successful in life, your child needs both.

7. Be consistent. If your rules vary from day to day in an unpredictable fashion or you enforce them intermittently, your child’s misbehavior is your fault, not his. Your most important disciplinary tools is consistency.

8. Avoid harsh discipline. Parents should never hit a child under any circumstances. Children who are spanked, hit or slapped are more prone to fighting with other children; more likely to be bullies and to use aggression to solve disputes with others.

9. Explain your rules and decisions. Good parents have expectations they want their children to live up to. Generally parents over-explain to young children and under-explain to adolescents. What is obvious to you may not be evident to a 12-year-old. He doesn’t have the priorities, judgment or experience that you have.