Kids and Bad Behavior
Ever not know what to do to help your kids with bad behavior? I find that sometimes my kids get the better of me with bad behavior and I have no idea what to do. It’s times like this that I have a secret strategy I bring to the table.
I have four kids and they have been known to be bad on occasion. Now yesterday was one of those days. I said to the kids “OK, everyone come to the kitchen table for a family meeting please.”
Everyone gathered together and I picked up a wooden spoon. I use a wooden spoon so that whoever is talking holds on to the spoon. It doesn’t have to be a spoon. With younger kids you can let them make and decorate a stick especially for family meetings. I wanted to address the whole family, but particularly one son of mine who had been giving me far too much attitude over the past few days.
I said to Kieren, “OK, we are going to do a role play here. I am going to be you, and you are going to be me.” I proceeded to show the best bad behavior I could think of, whingeing about the exact same things that Kieren had been whingeing about. I waited for his response. I continued to be cheeky until Kieren said to me “that is not OK. You need to be grounded for a week until you sort yourself out.” Thank you Kieren for telling me how to deal with that bad behavior. I didn’t want to disappoint him so I did just that.
This experience was great because it let me put myself in my child’s shoes and let Kieren put himself in my shoes. He did not like the bad behavior and cheekiness from me one little bit and put a prompt stop to it. Role playing, in this instance helped me realise that Kieren knew his bad behavior was unacceptable and that he needed a consequence for his actions.
When you get the whole family involved in role playing it can not only help clear the air and give everyone a few laughs, but can help you come up with some answers to some very real problems. So next time you are stumped by your child’s behavior and have no idea what to do, swap jumpers and try putting yourself in their shoes. It will work wonders for the situation. That is just one strategy I use to deal with kids and bad behavior.
For more information on getting your child to behave, please go to my web site:
www.mychildcanbehave.com/main.html
