Some natural consequences may be too severe when other methods of discipline could be used. For example, making a child walk home from school alone may not be advisable in dangerous neighborhoods or bad weather. Sometimes you may want to plan a negative consequence that is logically related to your child's misbehavior. Logical consequences are effective because they teach children to be responsible. For example, if your child carelessly spills his milk, a logical consequence is for him to clean up the mess.
Logical consequences help avoid power struggles between the child and parent.
They can also greatly reduce nagging, correction and spanking. When your child completes the consequence, the incident is over, and hopefully he has learned to avoid the problem in the future. Using natural consequences for discipline may require some extra work on your part. For example, you may need to teach your child how to use a sponge mop, operate the washing machine, etc. What may be convenient may not be correct.