THE STORY OF THE MUM AND THOSE CRAZY KIDS

Every day, when the family had dinner together, the mum would go through the same routine. She just had no other way of dealing with it………

The kids would mess around, not eat their food, argue with each other and the mother would get more and more wound up until she just started shouting at them…...

DINNER KIDS PLAY UP MOTHER SHOUTS MONDAY

DINNER KIDS PLAY UP MOTHER SHOUTS TUESDAY

DINNER KIDS PLAY UP MOTHER SHOUTS WEDNESDAY

DINNER KIDS PLAY UP MOTHER SHOUTS THURSDAY

THEN ONE DAY The lady read in a newspaper that shouting at your kids can make them even worse……. Shouting at your kids can reinforce their bad behaviour!! NEWS!

No more shouting at the dinner table, I don’t want to make them worse

DINNER KIDS PLAY UP ……… NEXT DAY

DINNER KIDS PLAY UP ……… AND THE NEXT DAY

IT WAS REALLY DIFFICULT NOT TO REACT so later on the mother finally lost her temper and shouted and shouted until her throat was sore…

DINNER KIDS PLAY UP MOTHER SHOUTS AND THE NEXT DAY SHE WENT BACK TO

DINNER KIDS PLAY UP MOTHER SHOUTS AND MORE

THEN ONE DAY The lady heard of ….. DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT

The next day Instead of sitting in the same places at the dinner table and going through the same routine, the mother did something different – they all sat in different places, she tried whispering instead of shouting when the kids got rowdy and she praised them when they were behaving instead of only ever noticing their bad behaviour. With a different approach the kids ate their dinner and behaved much better.

No more shouting from me! Are you going to lose your temper?

Children will keep doing things that get them attention or for which they get ‘rewarded’, even if the attention is negative (i.e. shouting). Children will assume that what their parents do is OK, and they’ll copy it. Ignoring your child’s bad behaviour can be a powerful way of stopping it. Rewarding behaviour that you want to see is a powerful way of encouraging more of it. Give specific praise and/or a small tangible reward. Do Something Different makes change easier. It weakens the chain of habits that support unwanted behaviour. Doing something differently can set off a whole chain of new positive events.