Love & Logic 2: I'm warning you...

This is over a week overdue, but a good exercise for me to do to absorb it. The last class I made it to was about teaching your kids to listen the first time.

The basic rule: Set the limit once and follow through with loving consequences instead of reminders and warnings.

So, if Harper is hitting Lucy with a toy, I tell her she can play with they toy as long as she doesn't hit Lucy, and if she continues to hit, take the toy away.

This is simpler than it sounds. I think people (including me) try the warnings and chances because its hard to follow through with the consequences sometimes. Especially when you aren't somewhere it is not convenient to give consequences either because you don't know what to do, or you don't want to be embarassed by a fit.

For little kids, they say should get immediate feedback for bad behavior that is one of the following;
1. Remove the adult - example of this would be to keep walking through the toy dept if a kid throws a fit over a toy.
2. Remove the child. Time out.
3. Remove the offending object.

The Uh Oh song. This is the L&L version of time out and they tell you how to do it.

1. Say, "Uh oh, we have a little bedroom time coming up." Lead or carry them to their room.
2. Say, "Have a nice little fit and we'll see you when you're sweet".
3. Give them a choice, "Do you want to stay in here with the door open or shut?" If they try to run out say "Oh, how sad, you chose shut."
4. Stay nearby until they are calm
5. Once they are calm set the egg timer (for 4 minutes)
6. They come out and you give them a hug without a lecture or repeating why they went in there.

They go through this, and then the woman, who is a counselor, says not to use this technique if your child has had early childhood trauma such as a sickness, accident or if they are premature. What? So, now I'm confused if this is something I should try. Honestly, I don't think I'm ready to shut them in their room right now. I think I'll stick to timeout in plain view until they are a little older.