Behaviour modification

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?

6 thoughts on “Behaviour modification

  1. 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..

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