Whatever the cause of Ainsley's recent attitude problem, I was talking to my friend Jen from Jlogged.com.
She's got 3 boys, and I was telling her how FED UP I am and that I don't really know the most effective thing to do.
She suggested Boot Camp.
Hard labor she said. When they start acting up and getting out of control like that we sit them down for a family meeting and tell them we're not putting up with their attitude anymore and we're going to make them work.
But, she already has to do chores, I said.
Chores. No. I make them scrub toilets with a toothbrush. I make them rake leaves and do yard work. I make them do really hard and dirty jobs for really long periods of time. I ride them really hard for about 3 weeks and it seems to do the trick.
And the list of things that no one wants to do around here started adding up in my head. And I remembered my parents used to make us work too. And their parents before them. And who the heck cares if Supernanny has never featured the Hard Labor Attitude Boot Camp as a parenting method? It's worth a shot.
We sat down at the family meeting and took her to task for her attitude towards me and outlined the new rules.
Didn't she do a nice job on those weeds?
And the whole time she was out there it was blessed silence and peace. I just tell her she has one warning until she does more hard labor. I almost can't wait until she talks back so I can get the rest of the yard work done and the toilets . . .
Is there a downside to Attitude Boot Camp?
9 comments:
Mom, is that you? I had to pull weeds all the time for punishment. Yeah, it shuts you up pretty fast.
Who knew. I was so afraid of becoming my mother I completely missed that I was becoming yours.
Work - It's an old gem.
I'm surprised I needed someone else to remind me of it. :)
I love this idea.
Rebecca
Whoo hoo! Not enough kids have "chores" these days! It's about time!
I'm so glad it's going good! That's great.
Hmmm, I wonder if that also works on 4 year old. Cause he's the biggest eye rolling, sighing attitude offender here.
Try it Summer - I would.
Come back and tell us whether it's effective.
Ha! I love it! No downside to hard labor.
I'm back from Mexico by the way, and talk about hard labor. All the kids we were building the house for pitched in happily and did HARD work like shoveling dirt, and mixing concrete, and enjoyed doing it. We were all in awe of how happy these hard working dirt, dirt poor kiddos were.
I'm glad your back!
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