I had friends over last Sunday for my annual winter solstice celebration. For some reason, Yaya and Baby decided to argue and it progressed to insults. I counted to 5 and the bickering stopped.
My friends were stunned and asked for an explanation as to how I managed to do it.
I hate bickering. If you are not happy with something, you can say what is bothering you, but not insult each other to get a point across. From the time my kids were little, I have had consistent rule. If they bicker and start to insult each other, I count to 5, whosoever voice I hear after the 5, they get corner time, irrespective of who started it. I consider 5 seconds is plenty of time for them to stop. Couple of times each of them tried to be smarter than me and tried to speak quickly before the 5 seconds were up and I counted the numbers really quickly so the person who was trying to be a smart aleck got corner time.
I don’t remember when was the last time any of my kids had corner time. I think the last person to have had corner time is me. ( for swearing). Even though they are 17, 15 and 13 years old and technically too old to worry about corner time as a form of punishment, the behaviour modification plans still work. They still shut up before I finish counting to 5.
Not bad eh?
Hi Sarah,
what to do if a child(5 year) refuse to take corner time? My girl continuously crying and refuses to take corner time when I asked her to do that. Finally it ends up in beating which I am trying to avoid most of the time.
Anju: Discipline is not a quick fix. It takes time and patience. The first time Yaya had corner time, it took me one hour to get to her stand in the corner for 1 minute. If you google about corner time routines, there are plenty of articles by other parents that describe how they managed.
Please don’t do physical punishment..all you are gaining is their hatred..
lol!!
MS : 🙂
This is not fair Sarah. Let them quarrel and ease out their tension. In minutes they will be back as before.
Bipin: You missed the point. I don’t stop my children from arguing. I stop them from insulting each other.