Both parents should always maintain and reinforce the same disciplinary methods. If one parent decides to institute a new rule, it should be discussed with the other parent prior to implementation.
A parenting agreement will often have a section that addresses the disciplinary standards, so each parent is following the same rules for all disciplinary measures.
Parents can run into many difficulties when one parent is delivering a harsher punishment or no punishment at all. A child quickly picks up that one parent is more lenient and takes advantage of the situation. For example, a child will say, "Mom lets me do that at the dinner table", or "If I were at Dad's house he would not care if I stayed up and watched a movie." This type of behavior by the child hurts the parenting relationship. And any child can easily make up a quick story to try to get what he or she wants.
Moreover, an agreement about the disciplinary actions rebuilds trust between the parents.
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