If you have a rule against candy before dinner, try to enforce this all the time. Otherwise, you teach your toddler that rules don't matter or that they can be easily broken. Explain the rules. Explain in simple words why you have the rule. This helps your toddler learn that rules have a purpose.
Studies show that children follow rules better when they are given reasons for the rules.
This understanding will help them follow rules and make good decisions later. This issue has been adapted from Parent Express , by Dr. Dorothea Cudaback, Cooperative Extension, University of California and her colleagues throughout the national Cooperative Extension System. John C. Nye, Dean and Director. Distributed in furtherance of Acts of Congress of May 8 and June 30, 1914. It is the policy of the Delaware Cooperative Extension System that no person shall be subjected to discrimination on the grounds of race, color, sex, disability, age, or national origin.