Everyone should read this book! I don't have mellow kids, and sometimes they are down right insane. A couple of weeks ago I had some Mommy melt downs. I don't know what your Mommy meltdowns look like, but mine are fairly epic, our family doesn't do anything small. They don't happen often (about once a year) but if I am being honest, and I always try to be, they are similar to a 3 year old tantrum.
So naturally after these meltdowns I went out and bought 4 parenting books. One of these books has been a game changer! At first I was super skeptical but decided it was worth a try.
"How to talk so Kids will listen, How to listen so kids will talk"
Seriously its been working! I can't believe it. We were having some major attitude issues with the older boys. They didn't seem to care that we were even speaking to them. They rarely gave us more than one word answers to any question we asked as we tried to engage them. They did what ever they wanted no matter what and don't even get me started on the whining.
I told my friends about my plan. I pumped myself up. I could do this. In the beginning I felt totally fake. I felt like my kids would see right through to what I was doing, but sure enough they started talking to me. It was almost instantaneous! Since Landon gives me more opportunities to practice my new found skills he was the first one I got to apply my new knowledge on. All of a sudden, out of no where he was telling me how he was feeling and having conversations with me. It worked! Just like that and it has truly been a miracle!!!
Bedtime has been a nightmare for the last 5 years of my life. The fighting, the defiance, the yelling, and the disobeying was exhausting. I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to really see if this book worked, but I was skeptical I would actually see a change. Let me tell you, we have had zero bedtime problems since we applied the skills we learned in this book. ZERO! Overnight the issues were gone and they have stayed that way for 3 weeks now.
I personally don't agree with every single aspect of the book. I believe that children have to understand that in some situations they need to do something just because they were asked, without a conversation. It prepares them for the workplace and other similar situations, however I also think that it has been beneficial to "loosen my reigns" and trust them to problem solve. Occasionally having to watch them struggle to find a solution to problems has made me sad, but I have seen their self confidence grow because of these situations.
All in all the fighting, whining, complaining, disobeying, and defiance has decreased, while their self confidence, obedience, conversation skills, and active listening have increased. I am not saying that my kids are perfect but I like them even more than I did a month ago. So I guess the conclusion of this post is, if you have kids go out and get this book right now!! You will not regret it!
No comments:
Post a Comment