The other day, BeAGoodMom spent the day with Pookie and I spent the day with Geetle and Giggles.
BeAGoodMom left before I did and Geetle started giving me grief because she thought she would have preferred to go with BeAGoodMom.
I reminded Geetle that we were planning on going to play glow in the dark putt-putt golf at the mall after we went out to lunch but we had to wait for Giggles to wake up from her nap first.
Geetle continued being whiney and sassy and mopey. My three favorite things.
Rather than fighting and arguing with her, I used one of my favorite parenting tips that I picked up somewhere along the way.
Then I drew 3 squares on a piece of paper and she instantly perked up.
She knows from prior experience that if all 3 of the boxes get a check in them that she does not get to do the fun planned activity.
She instantly perked up, became very helpful and we ended up having a great day. It is funny watching her push the limits and then realizing when she has pushed them past that magic point. Thank goodness she rarely decides to continue pushing the issue.
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I like the checkbox idea. I may have to use this when the time comes, and I’m sure it will one day.
I like the new template here, by the way.
Paul
Ooo… I wish I could get that to work on The Boy. I’m going to keep it in my back pocket for when he is a bit older though! Thanks for sharing!
(I like your new template too.)
We started using it with Geetle when she was about 3 and went through a crazy tantrum phase. After a couple weeks, we pretty much quit using it for more than a random day here or there because she broke out of the tantrum phase.
It never worked with Pookie because he doesn’t really have traditional tantrums and when he gets mad about something the delayed reward doesn’t seem to work yet.
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