I have a confession. On certain days, well most days, I have some difficulty disciplining Chase. I can't for the life of me not smile or giggle when he does something ornery. I try so hard not to feed into his mischievousness, but for some reason when I set a limit or say "no" I absolutely can't keep a straight face. Perhaps its because he is so stinking cute!
The kicker is, that for over the past decade it's been my job to refrain from negatively reinforcing any inappropriate behavior. Quite simply-don't feed into kids' behaviors! I've trained countless staff and child care providers on planned ignoring. You ignore the behavior, not the kid. At work I could almost always follow the plan. Over the years I've pretty much seen it all, and over the years I've been able to hold it together.
For some reason however, I can't bring myself to follow these practices with my own child. Am I a horrible mother?
Not that this is news to any of you, but grabbing the camera when your child is causing trouble most definitely reinforces negative behavior. Here Chase is repeatedly locking daddy outside. He is mostly just being silly, and its become a game. Not that big of a deal. There are, however, times like when he is intentionally throwing something, or yanking the hell out of the dog's hair that I have to bury my face in my forearm after giving him a direction. I really do try to keep from laughing...I swear!!
Singing "Hey Jude" as he locks the door
Yep, that's daddy out there
"Okay, so here's the plan. I'll unlock it, but only for you."
What?
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