I love natural consequences. My favorite parenting book is parenting with Love and Logic by Cline and Fay, and that is their motto, if they have one. Natural consequences teach lessons no amount of ranting, raving, crying, hand wringing, sleeplessness, or disappointment could ever hope to touch. Kids get to choose whatever they want, but they don't get to choose the consequences. It is such a liberating concept. Their problems remain their problems. I do a poor job sometimes of keeping my emotions in check ( like when I tore up her SIM card and threw it out the window while I was driving), but when I can keep my mouth shut until I can control the Carol Burnett "KILL, KILL, KILL, phase- I do pretty well. It's taken me 5 kids to be really challenged. Maybe the first four were the warm up rounds and now I'm seeing me and the skills put to the test. Wish me luck!
I love having a supportive husband who is rationale when I am crazy. He has been fantastic throughout this whole situation.
No comments:
Post a Comment