Very few childish behaviors are more annoying than whining. I don't know any mom who hasn't wanted to rip her hair out over this issue! Many of us don't have a clue how to stop it. But I found something that worked well in my family: I refused to acknowledge what they had to say if they whined. It's a simple matter of positive reinforcement. When they approached me in a respectful manner, I addressed their concern. When they whined, I refused to engage them in conversation. Whining comes naturally to children. We must teach them what is acceptable when they speak and what is not. By allowing a child to speak rudely and with a whiny tone of voice, by engaging them in conversation when they stomp their feet and shout at us, we show them this behavior is okay. But if we refuse to listen until they are calm and can speak kindly in a smooth tone, then they quickly learn that if they want their problem solved, they must approach us correctly. So what does that look like, … [Read more...]
Procrastination: Getting in Your Own Way
Are you a procrastinator? Procrastination is one of my biggest faults. It's something I face every single day. I have a laundry list of things to do each day, goals to reach and other things I want to accomplish. However, sometimes I get in my own way. What Is Procrastination? First, we'll define procrastination. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary it is defined as: to be slow or late about doing something that should be done : to delay doing something until a later time because you do not want to do it, because you are lazy, etc. Let's pause right here. Lazy?! While I feel like I am far from lazy, admittedly, my procrastination does ultimately result in laziness. Now that we know exactly what we're dealing with, I can assure you that I never want to be a part of a noun which has the synonym Lazy. That is far from my mind when I'm giving myself excuses as to whether or not I should mop the floor now or later. Let's face the facts: if I'm putting off mopping the … [Read more...]
Toy Jail
My four year old has a terrible time "remembering" to pick up after herself. Our rule is, when you're done playing with or using something, it needs to be put away. Her practice, however, is when she's done playing with or using something, drop it and find something else to drop, etc. Being as though I'm very pregnant and can only bend over so far to pick things up these days--and want to have teachable moments over enabling bad habits--I decided we should try a new approach. The first attempt I made was to instill a dreaded consequence. "From now on, when I see a toy on the floor that isn't picked up, I'm going to throw away." Her response was immediate and matter-of-fact, "Well if you do something bad like that, you will go to jail." I could see I wasn't going to get very far in the way of threats. My second attempt was to (speaking of jail) try to create a toy jail. If I saw something not picked up, it would go to toy jail and she would have to do a "responsible chore" to bail … [Read more...]
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