Topic : Your Parenting Style

I don't see giving a 6 year old the count of three as patronizing.  I see it as giving him or her a warning that they are committing a foul tthat will punished should the act continue!  I have three kids myself, two aged 8 and one who is 6.  When they were younger, I used to tell them to stop then go to the count.... 1 was telling them to stop, 2 was getting up and going to where they were, and 3 was taking them by the hand and removing them from the scene of the crime and sitting them down for time out.  But now, 1 is telling them to stop, if they continue I simply say "that's 2!", and 3 is their punishment, only it dioesn't consist of time out.  They are old enough to get them whert it hurts (game cube taken away, no swimming that day or the next, no television, whatever they are into at the time). 

I don't see myself as a stern parent, but I will not allow my children to run all over me.  I also tend to pick and choose my battles.  If it's a question of dealing with right and wrong, I'm right there.  If it's an issue where they are messing with each other, I let them deal with it the best they can before I step in.

I hear constantly about parents having to be consistant in discipline for their children.

Thats well and good.  But try it when you have ADD.  The kids learn very quickly that they can wait you out.  In a hour you won't remember what you said and you probably won't remember why you said it.

My kids turned out great, thanks mostly to the fact that they have good souls and didn't take total advantage of their mom.  It could have been much worse.  I had great plans for being a great mother, it just didn't turn out that way. 

Now that I am past menopause, a few things seem easier (or I just don't care), but the things that are important, still, sometimes don't get done.

I have 2 parttime jobs because when I get bored I quit and this way the jobs stay interesting enough that I stay with them (keeping my fingers crossed).

So when you hear of a mother who misses meeting and isn't the perfect housewife, and doesn't seem to have it all together, it might be me>

lostmind83

my parents would ground us girls which ever was in trouble from whatever she knew we like doing, didn't matter what we were in trouble for, and us girls have turned out fine.

Hoping to do about the same with my kids.

I pick and choose my battles too, and I do explain to them on their level, but not at a time when I am enforcing authority, I chooose to explain to them when they ask or when we are having a casual conversation, I want to be able to bestill in my children values that they can bestill in their children as well. I'm not trying to sound like a bitter mother that treats their children like a nobody, I am just trying to get control over the house.