How Enforceable Statements Work for Picking Up Toys!

Thank you Megan for sharing this success story about using “I will”  enforceable statements…… I needed my 2.5 yr old daughter to pick up her toys.  She ignored me so I said “I only read stories to girls who pick up their toys.”  She still didn’t do it and got distracted putting on dress up gloves. [...]

What’s Worthwhile is Rarely Easy

Did your parents have pet phrases that drove you nuts as a kid? My pop had many. “For crying-out loud!” was his second most favorite. “When I was a kid …” came in a close third.   Believe it or not, neither of these had a profound impact on my life, although I do use [...]

Let Kids Learn From Little Mistakes

I love this success story because it shows how staying calm and allowing your daughter to learn from little mistakes leads to self esteem. “I did it by myself!”….  My 2.5 year old daughter took off her shoes in a restaurant before we noticed. I asked her to put them back on and my husband warned her to put [...]

Dad Withdraws From the Son’s Choice Account

Choices work with kids because you’re sharing power.  Every “effective” choice you give puts deposits in kids power accounts.  An often overlooked “Guideline for Giving Effective Choices” taught in the Love and Logic parenting courses is the “withdrawal from the account.”  Here is a great story of a dad who used this skill with his 9 [...]

What’s Your Plan?

I was so tickled today when my 13 yr old son yelled up from the basement after he got home from school, “Mom, do you want to hear my plan?” Yes, I did, in fact.  I have been asking him this same question for over a year, everyday, when he gets home from school “What’s [...]

Potty Training Using Joyful Modeling

(reprinted from Janada Clark, Clear Path Coaching) Many parents seem to struggle with the issue of potty training. Feeling the pressure from family members and friends that their child should be trained “by now.” These well meaning but misguided judgements can undermine your confidence as a parent and leave you feeling you are somehow lacking [...]

When You Have No Control

  There are three areas of our kids’ lives over which we wished we had total control. These include: • Input…what goes into their body and when. • Output…what goes out of their body and when. • Between the ears…what they think, believe and learn. When it comes to what a child eats, when and where they poop, [...]

Tips for Ending Homework Hassles

One mother said it well: “I’m tired of doing battle every evening over spelling words, long division, and book reports. I thought I was done with this sort of homework when I graduated from school!” Listed below are some time-tested tips for helping your child with homework: • Help only as long as there is no [...]

Turn Your Words into Gold

New YouTube clip posted by the Love and Logic Institute teaching the skill of  “Enforceable Statements.”    Never tell a strong willed kid what to do, tell them what you will do instead using an “I will” statement.   http://bit.ly/9p9WNL

Can you help this family with the 10th rule?

Can you help this family with the 10th rule? Please add your comments below.   Smith Family Rules: 1. The kitchen closes at 7 pm. It opens again at 7 am. 2. Good behavior is sometimes rewarded. 3. Bad behavior gets a timeout. 4. You get to keep the toys you pick up. 5. Bedtime is [...]

“I will” statements work for mom the first time!

A success story worth sharing:  I tried the I’ll be happy to….when you…and the would you like to get….next time? With my daughter. It worked the first time! :  ) At bedtime, my daughter  came out of her room at night to ask for some more water.  I said, “Oh, I would love to get [...]

Choices Aren’t Threats

If you have a strong-willed child, you know how much some folks love control. In fact, the control needs of these kids are so strong that many are willing to perform all sorts of self-defeating-even self-destructive-behaviors just to show that they’re the boss. When we try to hoard control from these kids, we end up [...]

Choices to the Rescue

Here’s Laura’s story…. I have used those tools many times on a daily basis with much success, and wanted to share a few… 1) At bedtime routine, my 2 1/2 yr old daughter objected to her turn for teeth brushing (a melt down looming in the air).  I simply asked, “Do you want to hold [...]

Step-Parenting: Should I Discipline the Kids or Not?

To get a handle on what successful step-parents do, it’s helpful to first get a glimpse at what less successful ones try. I call the first well-intentioned yet doomed approach the “Wrecking Ball” step-parenting style. These folks take on the role of demolition expert in the family. They storm in with a crash, trying to [...]

Stubborn Kids

Have you ever noticed how strong-willed kids love to be told what to do? Yeah, they love it, because it gives them a chance to get stubborn and to show us who’s really the boss! All that’s required to achieve their goal is to do the opposite of what we want, do it extremely slowly, [...]

Kids and Allowance

Should kids get allowances?  Yes.  It’s a good way to teach money management. This is the topic of  this FREE podcast “Kids and Allowance,”  by Dr. Charles Fay and Jim Fay of the Love and Logic® Institute, Inc.  The Fay’s  discuss: 1. Give your kids books to practise reading, so give your kids money to practise money management. 2. [...]

Phone Tossing

Dad bought Cindy a new cell phone and before long he had two frustrations. It became more and more difficult to talk with her because of her distraction with text messaging her friends. When she wasn’t talking or texting she was absentmindedly tossing the phone in the air and catching it. Being very athletic, she [...]

Mom’s Book Serves a New Purpose

Mom left our conference with a new way of handling her kids, who routinely trashed the house, expecting her to clean up and prepare dinner while they were glued to the television. She walked into the house with a book in hand, saying, “Wow, guys! What a mess. I’ll start dinner as soon as it’s [...]

How to Get my Kid to Stay in Bed?

Question from a Mom: I wonder if you can point me in the right direction to find information from Love and Logic on bedtime struggles with young children. My husband and I are disagreeing about the best way to handle George(3 years old) not staying in bed. Answer: Use the Love and Logic skill of choices to [...]

How Do I Get My Kids To Cooperate?

How can you use the Love and Logic skill of “enforceable statements” to work along with “choices” skill to get kids to cooperate?   Let’s first review enforceable statements or the “I will” statement in the context of teeth brushing. Instead of giving the command, “Brush your teeth”  Say, “I read stories to kids who brush [...]

Next Page »