Recent content by MarkLakewood336

You are more than welcome!

I totally understand where you are coming from by giving your daughter gifts for unexpected deeds. However, I would focus on the internal rather than the external rewards. In other words, it isn't practical to expect external gifts for doing good deeds, for this rarely ever happens. But...

First off, it is very important that the parents agree on a set of rules, consequences, and rewards. If you are in a committed relationship, then you should have equal say in the discipline imposed as you would also be responsible for implementing the discipline. If your girlfriend resists...

I don't feel that you should ever give up on imposing a bedtime, as long as your son lives with you. Naturally the older the child, the later the bedtime if appropriate. But I think that you need to always make your expectations clear.

I just want to wish you and your family a Happy Easter!

In a way, we might be talking about the same thing. Natural consequences are the most powerful methods of discipline. I don't believe in punishment. Punishment is basically meant to hurt the child. This is counterproductive. I strive for logical consequences. True, these are artificial...

Actually for me, the apology is only half of it. It would not be the actual consequence for the specific misbehavior. To me, an apology should occur after each misbehavior. However, if the apology is used as the sole consequence, the child will learn that when he/she misbehaves, all he/she...

I don't necessarily disagree with you entirely but I do disagree with your analogy. The other folks on the road may have witnessed but were not victimized by the accident, but this child's classmates were in fact direct victims of a lie. These really are two separate issues whether they were...

I always find it funny when parents have difficulty understanding or find reasons not to have their child take responsibility for inappropriate behaviors. I suppose that we could always build more juvenile facilities! I think I had made myself quite clear in my other comments that this girl...

Once again, I think you are missing the point. It isn't up to me or you how she needs to own up to what she did that was wrong. This is entirely up to her parents. Whether she is made to apologize to her classmates is again entirely up to her parents. I am just conveying her need to take...

I think we are missing the point. If someone lies to you, wouldn't you want them to apologize to you for lying? I don't know the particulars of this situation nor do I know all the people she lied to. But I believe as all parents should - If a child misbehaves, they should take responsibility...

Who said anything about standing up in front of her class to apologize? I never said this. All I said was that she should apologize to those she lied to. How she apologizes is a different matter altogether. Secondly, if she lied to her classmates, they were affected!

Taking responsibility has nothing to do with public humiliation. These are two separate issues.

You should treat this behavior as any other lie, with a consequence. All kids lie from time to time. If you don't consequate it, this behavior will continue. What has worked for me is making the length of the consequence contingent upon taking responsibility for the behavior by having the...