My friend Tarmy lent me her copy of 1-2-3 Magic, Effective Discipline for Children 2-12 by Thomas Phelan, and I just finished it this morning.
It has changed my parenting philosophy a bit, and I'm pleased.
The 1-2-3 rule: No unnecessary talking (by the parent), and no emotion. When your kid needs to stop a behavior, you simply say, "That's 1" (pointing out what needs to stop, if necessary. Wait a few seconds to give them a chance, before proceeding to 2. On 3, they get a time out, or a time out alternative.
The book also goes into tactics for encouraging positive behavior, and ways of improving our relationships with our children so that the majority of the time we spend with them is enjoyable instead of frustrating and full of discipline that's only half working.
So far it's working really well. I'd highly recommend the read, especially the last few chapters focusing on strengthening your relationship.
2 comments:
Awesome! I hope to actually read it sometime soon.
We did this with Jay when he was 2 and we were having a particularly hard time with him and it worked great! We kind of strayed away from it a bit as he's gotten more cooperative, but we still count occasionaly and he knows we mean business. We really need to start it up again full force and get the whining under control.
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