ImpostorMom

I know I’ve been dark for a while and I have had things to say I just haven’t felt I could say them here. Anyway, the other day I was chatting with Cara Mama about discipline and our raging two-year-olds. We used to be pretty anti-spanking around here but we’ve changed our tune slightly.

When nothing else seems to work for the worst offenses a brief spanking seems to do the trick for Boog. It is not something myself or my husband enjoys doing by any means but there seem to be some situations that just call for it. That being said, he’s had all of two spankings total. One from me and one from my husband.

However, we have started a new discipline approach just this week and it seems to be going quite well so far. Upon the suggestion of some friends of mine with a three-year-old (dad happens to also be a school psychologist) we’ve implemented a more positive reinforcement method.

Behold the rings of reward…

Now to you and me this may look like your ordinary construction paper chain hanging from our living room ceiling. But for Boog this represents the possibility of a BIG SURPRISE. The whole idea is that he earns rings for good behavior and when the chain hits the floor he gets a big surprise. We’ve decided that this is only a positive thing. He doesn’t loose rings for bad behavior, he just doesn’t earn more rings.

He’s done pretty well so far, we started it late Sunday and he’s already earned 9 rings. We are giving him plenty of opportunities right now though. I figure to really work well he’s got to see some pay off pretty soon.

So far he gets rings for going to sleep quietly without pitching a fit, getting through school drop off without crying, picking up his cars all by himself without whining and crying and also behaving at the dinner table. He’s only missed one chance when he was offered a ring this week.

Really we’ve been using it as a tool in any situation where we think there is a potential for bad behavior. He’s been really into it and gets really excited about adding to the chain. We hadn’t really discussed what his first prize would be but then a friend sent me a link to this today.

And the prize has been found. I bought the Lightning McQueen one. We have a SERIOUS Cars obsession going on around here and this will be right up his alley. Plus, he already has a big ‘ole Lightning McQueen fuzzy blanket so why not a pillow to go with it.

I’m hoping we can continue the trend and maybe have less screaming “NO!” and blatant defiance. I’ll take any new tools I can get to put a stop to that nonsense. Good grief and he’s only TWO!! Sheesh.

This entry was posted on June 10, 2009 at 12:41 pm and is filed under The Boy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.