STEP 3: Setting boundaries and being able to say “No”

Note for the trainer: Because of their role as a “compassionate caregiver”, participants may become excessively permissive or passive towards children.

Help them recognise that boundaries are also protective for the child.

Method: Practical activity.

Materials: Boundary-setting scenarios.

Implementation steps:

The principle of a polite “No”: The trainer explains that saying no is not an attack on the other person; it is a statement of one’s own boundaries.

Activity: Participants practise, in writing and orally, how to say no with calm but unwavering clarity when children insist on bending rules — for example, wanting to use a telephone after bedtime:

“I hear you and understand that you want to play, but it is bedtime now, so I cannot allow the telephone. You may use it again tomorrow during free time.”