There are a lot of reasons why children misbehave, but I will give only five reasons.
- Seeking for attention: A child will do anything to seek parents or caregivers’ attention. This happens when a child’s need for love, to be loved, seen, heard, valued, and respected is not met. When this need is not met in the child, the child will show any negative behavior just to satisfy this need, because children are smart, and they know that the only way to get mummy, daddy, or caregivers’ attention is to misbehave, what do you think they would do? They would misbehave. Some children would go as far as jumping on the table, sofa, some would scream, roll on the floor just to get your attention.
- Test Limit: Children misbehave because they want to test boundaries. They know very well that they’re not allowed to watch TV during the week, but they would pick the remote to turn the TV on just to see your reaction or if you’d do anything about it Or say you told your child; Jane, “I would like you to be playing with your toys, not mummy’s phone, because it is private and it belongs to her.” One thing with children is this, the moment you say it, that minute they’ll pick the phone up to see whether you’re serious or not. So, ensure you actually mean it when you say don’t play with my phones anymore else they’ll take you for granted.
- Need for Power and control: This kind of need usually occurs when a child’s need for autonomy is not met. A child would say NO to your request because you, as a parent or caregiver, did not satisfy his need; you did not give him/her the power of choice and decisions. For instance, your child says I want the black shoes or I want to turn the light on, and you say no, your child too” He would refuse to cooperate with you or your caregiver.
- They have big emotions: many, at times, children misbehave because they do not understand how they’re feeling. When they’re unable to tell whether they’re sad, angry, hungry, tired, happy, excited, etc, they feel overwhelmed and, as a result, lead to them acting out. So it’s important you teach your child how to regulate their emotions in a healthy way.
- Lack of skills: More often than not, children misbehave because they lack skills such as social skills, problem-solving skills, listening skills, and communication skills. A child who cannot express himself or communicate will hit another child or cry just because he wants the exact toy another child is holding but lacks communication to be able to ask.
