Put Kids In The Same Boat
Putting my kids in the same boat (treating them the same when they fight) was actually more peaceful for all of us. It’s so easy to get caught up in my boys fight and defend my youngest son who’s 3 …
Teach Children What To Do
One of the first Positive Discipline tools I learned was—teach your children what to do— rather than what “not” to do. It started for me before my boys were even talking and I still teach them every day. Some examples …
Focus on Solutions
Two Positive Discipline sayings that we’re drilled into my head growing up were–Mistakes are Wonderful Opportunities to Learn and the one relating to this weeks blog–Are we look for blame or are we looking for solutions? My favorite memory of …
Agreements
The Agreements tool card this week helped me realize how often my husband and I make the agreements and then willingly or unwillingly have our boys “agree.” I then will follow up by saying, “What was our agreement?” Although, it …
Follow Through
Follow through is a Positive Discipline tool that comes naturally for me for two reasons. The first reason is because my parents—my mom especially led by example. I always knew that if my Mom said it—she meant it! It wasn’t …
Limit Screen Time
Thank goodness the Limited Screen Time tool card wasn’t two weeks ago during my boys Spring Break. I’m sure there are plenty of parents out there that can say “holy cow—that was a long week.” Recently I watched one of …
Problem Solving
If there’s anything I’ve learned–it’s that you/we cannot problem solve during our “flipped lid state”. My family and I have been reminded that when we are in our “reptilian brain” there’s no rational thinking taking place. I’ve been role modeling …
Mistakes
Once again, I get to share about how fortunate I was to be raised learning that “Mistakes are Wonderful Opportunities to Learn.” Throughout my childhood we always celebrated our mistakes. (At the time, I thought that’s what everyone did). My …
Jobs
There’s a difference between “jobs” and chores. In our house “jobs” have become something that the boys have more or less volunteered to do with enthusiasm and then as a result it becomes their job. A few examples include: Greyson …
Validate Feelings
The validating feelings tool card provided daily, if not hourly, opportunities for me to practice this skill with my two boys. It wasn’t until this week that I made the extra effort to come up with new ways to say, …