When parenting children, we sometimes find ourselves wondering if our children are just playing around or are they actually displaying violent child behavior?

It can get difficult to distinguish between the two when a child gets wild. This is especially true for boys, who do tend to play rough. Roughhousing, mock fighting, and other seeming violent activities are often undertaken.

Primarily, you should listen to what your gut tells you.

If you think your child is getting beyond your control and is starting to act rough, you can safely think that your child has already breached the line dividing violent child behavior and roughhousing.

Amongst the best indications is when one child wishes to stop but the other doesn’t. This is a situation that has gotten out of hand, and this needs to be broken up through external interference.

Understand that while playing rough is ok, being violent is not. Children that indulge in violence while playing can lose control. Violence, if continued as the child gets older, can adversely affect the child’s future. Again, the best way to differentiate between the two is to follow your gut feeling.

You should also take into account the fact that children come face to face with violence continually through movies, TV (even their cartoons they watch), video games, etc. which ends up increasing the tolerance levels of violent behavior in children.

Also, what one parent might see as distinctively violent; another might pass off for simple roughhousing.

A great parenting tip would be to monitor what your kids watch on TV and play with.While the moment a child loses control isn’t necessarily clear, indications include:

a) Trusting your gut feeling

b) When one child wants to stop but the other refuses to do so. This is when parent intervention is required.