I was serious when I said that pregnancy has made me a bad mother. But then again, the beginning of the year has been transitional for all of us. Going from both mini and abc to going to school full time to homeschooling them while moving and unpacking before finding out we were pregnant was crazy to say the least. In that time, they’ve grown in some awesome ways and regressed in some not so awesome ways. Lately I’ve found myself fussing so much more and as I was chatting with my friend, I realized that it was because I hadn’t set the proper expectations or standards for them.
Setting New Expectations
I’m a huge supporter of charting behavior for success and with both my children’s behavior unraveling, it’s been time for me to set up some new charts. I’m pretty sure that abc has no clue as of what the charts are for but I like that we’re working on behaviors. With mini, we’re working on doing some specific behaviors while getting rid of some others. As with any behavior chart, there are rewards that she can earn that she values.
Giving The Tools For Better Behavior
As I was mid-fuss, it occurred to me that my kids may not understand what I mean when I say that they need to learn how to control themselves or that they have bad manners. Because we spend a lot of time at home, manners aren’t something that we work out outside of your normal “please” and “thank you”. But as I watched mini eat dinner one night, I realized this was something that needed more work in addition to some other things. So I created these reminders to put up on the wall to serve as a consistent reminder of what we’re looking for in their behavior.
These babies have now been laminated and are posted on the wall in a central area.
Setting the Standards Early
Standards tend to trickle down to all those around you when you have them and that’s what I want to happen in our household. The great thing about mini growing up is that she can read and comprehend things and then help me enforce them with her younger siblings. One of the things that I noticed early on with mini is that she has my temper. There’s nothing like a mirror showing you the work that you still need to do on yourself, right? This has been a work in progress for a couple of years but I think that giving her something that she can read in the moment is helpful too as well as sets the standard for what’s appropriate in our home. Same thing with manners, apologizing and more.
How do you handle discipline challenges with your children?
Want to print these posters out for yourself? Click on the images to download!
