Beyond the school gates

Your behaviour is the only behaviour over which you have absolute control. To change your children's behaviour, you first need to change your own.

The culture of any home is determined by the parents. If you can remain unflappably calm in the face of every supermarket tantrum and sarcastic eye-roll, order will soon follow.

Here, Paul Dix - Britain's leading children's behaviour expert - reveals how to build a culture of calm consistency into your home, starting today. He explains how you really can maintain a sense of Zen-like serenity in the face of even the most chaotic behaviour, from school-gate screaming matches to mealtime childmageddon. And he offers a set of simple strategies for coolly getting the behaviour you want - without a barked instruction, deranged punishment or cold, hard cash-bribe in sight.

His tried-and-tested method will change what your child does by first changing what you do. You will never need to raise your voice again.