Today has been a lovely day! yay
Enough said, end of post!
No only joking, just been chatting to some friends online and they have got me in a silly mood. Isn't it great to catch up with friends. We are a bunch of diverse women with one thing in common, we are all twin mums and they never fail to make me feel good and happy. Thanks POPOTOMS, I can not wait for our August girlie night away.
Anyway, back to the matter in hand. My little people..... isn't it amazing the simplicity of some things that will brighten your child's day? We took JJ for his swim lesson today and afterwards as we were tight for time I said we could have a McD's and do the drive through. We sat in the car and ate our food waiting at the station for Daddy's train to arrive. They could not of been more happy anywhere else in the world. Me, dinner at a nice London restaurant would float my boat. But fast food from the box in the car with an ELC car music CD blaring did it for them! lol
We were tight for time as we went to a wedding earlier this evening, so normally at 7pm I am getting the kids in their PJs and tucking them up in bed. Tonight they were getting in their glad rags and heading out to dance, and dance they did! Cheesy music and a bottle of bubbles can delight even a stony faced 6 year old!
So much of my day has been good, as I have been on form. I am doing a parenting course at the moment and yesterday was about choices and consequences and getting your little ones to do the things you need them to do rather than going their own way. The way to get them to do this is to offer the choice for taking a bad action and point out the negative consequence and highlight the positive reward for the right action. It is lengthy and takes some thinking about but I can see in one day that it works. Long may I remain this Mummy who has the time and energy to think before she speaks.
Some of the other things we have been covering are family rules, kindness charts and rewarding children by positive reinforcement. So tonight since returning from the wedding I have made a starry night chart, which basically is a family kindness chart. When anyone in the family does something good and worthy of praise anyone else can give them a star and the aim is to fill the starry night sky and then the whole family get a reward together. So there is no competitiveness between the kids, everyone has to work together and they have to share why they are placing a star on the chart. One of the other women started this last week and it has worked wonders for her, so wish me luck here!
I also made some 'Mummy's Special Award' certificates. The idea is that each week I will give one to each child and there will be a reason why they get an award and this positive reinforcement of the right behaviour should result in me seeing more of it. I will let you know how I get on with these initiatives.