Inside Motherhood

Behavior advice

by Sherry on August 18th, 2008

I try to make a habit of NOT asking for advice on the Internet because it can get overwhelming, especially since one person’s thoughts can differ so drastically from someone else’s thoughts. However, here I am, asking anyway.

My almost-six-year-old daughter is currently trying to show her independence by not listening until we get frustrated with her, talking back, and being horrible to her little sister. Meanwhile, my 2.5-year old is realizing that she’s going to be three in November, so she’s trying to cram the “terrible twos” into the last few months she has left at this age.

It’s a surprise, sometimes, that I’m not a raging alcoholic. Yet.

We do the usual things many parents do - take away privileges, send them to their room or a time-out spot, etc. We don’t do them all at once, naturally, I’m saying these are the things we have tried over a period of time, and different consequences occur for different actions. For instance, if there’s a refusal to pick up a puzzle long after it’s been completed, I pick it up myself and it goes away for a couple of days. In fact, we have a three-shelf unit in the living room that normally houses baskets of toys. Yesterday, most of the toys ended up dumped out at once and no one would pick them up so I grabbed a garbage bag and stuffed everything inside. The bag is sitting beside my bed, the toys waiting to be “earned back” They’ve done a good job of picking stuff up today, so tomorrow I’ll let two baskets’ worth of stuff back out and see.

But in general, I’m reading, lately, a lot of websites and I even ordered The No-Cry Discipline Solution by Elizabeth Pantley. So far, I’m liking it, as it fits well with what I want in terms of family discipline. In other words, discipline being more about teaching your kids rather than being a crazed militant dictator, no spanking, and ideally helping me to stop YELLING so much.

(I haven’t raised my voice once today, other than when I called them to the table from the other room, and I’m quite proud. Go, me!)

Here’s where I ask for advice? Have you read a good discipline book? What was it, and what did you like about it?

(product photo: amazon.com)

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POSTED IN: Behavior