Consistency between parents: Building on the previous tip, there should not be one parent that lays the hammer down and the other that is a pushover. If your kids gravitate to one parent for certain things, this should be a sign of inconsistencies in parenting. Stereotypically, we see dad as the one to manage the tough stuff. All this does is makes one parent bad and the other good in the eyes of children. This is not fair to the parents or the child. If one parent cannot get the kids to act appropriately, potential disparities may exist in how they manage the children compared to the other parent. Take a balanced approach in who disciplines the small and big issues. The only exception to this rule is if one of the parents is a step-parent. Typically children will respond better to big discipline issues from their non-step-parent. In homes with step-parents, it is often better for the non-step-parent to deal with the big discipline problems.