unicorn@bmcg.UUCP (05/18/84)
Some weeks ago I posted an article about a family's sitting down together & writing down things not liked about the behavior of others. We discovered some kludges in stopping at that point. We didn't decide what to do about the misconduct or whatever. We took our original list last week & revised it by eliminating things that had stopped happening...and by adding a consequence (hopefully logical) for each offense. One interesting aside is that many items had become invalid and could be eliminated. Some of our consequences may need revising as we progress. One particularly interesting consequence is as follows: If Kim complains, crabs, whines, etc., the reason MUST BE that she's tired, sooooo she goes to bed 15 minutes earlier that evening. This one really works. Another is that if I "yell" at her, I must clean her room that day & make her bed. If anyone is interested, I can post the list, which is probably general enough so that these "problems" occur in most families. Not doing homework is a recurring theme: for every assignment she misses, she loses a TV program for a week. This one is a rather stiff penalty, but we've had a homework problem for quite a while...the old cliche: "The teacher never gives homework" is rapidly disappearing.