Quote:
Originally Posted by JeeberD
I'm glad to hear it's not just Bren. We've been working on listening to Mommy and Daddy, but it ain't going so hot...
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So, two thoughts...
There is a book called "How to Talk So your Kids will Listen, and Listen so your Kids will Talk." Or something to that effect. Some of it is over the top and goody goody, but the general message, I think, is very good. We have pulled a few ideas from there which are very effective. Probably the most effective is to give choices when you want them to do something.
For example, we often have trouble getting my son out of the bath tub and getting on with his bedtime routine. We've essentially fixed the problem by offering him a choice of how he wants to get out of the tub. Instead of back and forth of time to get out, I want to stay in, blah blah, it is, OK, tonight do you want to hop out of the tub like a bullfrog or fly out like a seahawk. He almost always takes a second to think about it, makes a decision and acts on it.
Second thing is we have a short list of rules which he's memorized. Rule number one is listen to mommy and daddy. There are a couple of fun ones (take care of the Ipad and one he made up about sharing a certain toy). But if he's not doing something, instead of the back and forth, we'll just say something like, Hey, bud, are you following rule number one? He's remarkably honest about it and will usually try to do better.
Obviously, each kid is different, but those two little tricks have worked really well for us.