Behavior Modification

Nolan had his 4 year well child visit yesterday, and as expected, he is doing just fine....other than an extremely chapped lip! Matt took Nolan to his appointment as I was not feeling too great. I had planned on taking him and asking the doctor about Natalie's exteme tantrums....and thankfully Matt asked the doctor. She gave him a handout dealing with behavior modification. It's a pretty simple format to understand....but may be a little harder to follow through with.

Natalie's tempers have continued to escalate to the point of her hurting herself. I have tried spanking, time-outs, comforting, ignoring....everything I could think of...but maybe I wasn't consistant enough with the type of discipline. According to the handout, we need to completely ignore the bad behavior...unless she begins to hurt herself or endanger anyone else. I have begun trying this method today....and it's going okay. It's also pretty useful advice for dealing with Nolan's whining and backtalk as well. I am completely ignoring the nasty outbreaks, and praising EVERYTHING that is acceptable. I feel kind of silly praising SO much....but I'm giving this a shot. I do praise my kids, but now I'm taking it to a new level....so we'll see how this works. I had felt like a terrible mother because I couldn't stop my child from hurting herself....so I'll try anything, and I am very optimistic that this will work.