Trust me when I tell you that I am no parenting expert, I have four children of varying ages, one who has successfully survived through to adulthood and so I think I have picked up a few tips along the way (well, one two anyway). Someone asked me the other day what would be my best parenting tip and apart from having somewhere in the house to hide every now and then and a never-ending supply of gin in the cupboard, I have one tip that has worked for me time and time again.
The countdown.
Simple. I love simple and with a high percent success result up until now, I am often amazed at how well this technique actually works.
It works in almost any situation when you need children to do something; whether is it to stop being silly, to do something, to move into another room, pretty much anything really, a simple countdown seems to do the trick.
Sometimes I do 10 down to 1, other times 5 to 1. A firm voice and holding your nerve is necessary, but it does seem to get results. I am usually amazed, I get to one and it has done the job. On occasions, when I get to one and nothing has happened and I have tried the second countdown.
It would be a good idea to have something in mind as a backup if it doesn’t work and if I am honest, I don’t usually have any idea what the consequence would be if I get to the end and we haven’t reached a satisfactory outcome. One positive of the countdown is that it does avoid the endless threats which can get out of hand, I prefer the mystery of the children now knowing what the result would be (so mysterious that I don’t know either.)
What would your best parenting tip be?
I am definitely going to try this. Some days I sound like such a nag and get tired of listening to the sound of my own voice. I also need to stop saying “if it’s not put away I’m going to throw it in the bin!”
Oh this is great. I really need to have more patience I threaten and then don’t follow through alot when I am busy which I hate being shouty mommy and not taking the time to explain things sometimes. I am working on it. Love this.
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I could definitely have done with trying this this morning…one of THOSE days 😉
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