I found this on a great blog.... [we are THAT family . com] It's such a great parenting tip that I had to post it here. I'm going to quote her exactly because it was written very well.
"Someone shared an idea in my forum they heard at a conference: When your child hurts the other with their words, rather than punish them, send them outside and ask them to hammer a nail into a piece of wood. Don't offer any other explanation or punishment.
Be consistent and do this for a couple of weeks. When you feel the time is right (or the board is full),
ask the child to removed the nails with a the claw of the hammer. Explain that when we apologize, it's just like removing the nails.
And then ask: What is left on the board?
Answer: holes.
We can apologize for our mean words, but they leave marks.
This proved to be a very powerful illustration in our home and not just for our kids. If I had to name one of my top weaknesses (there are many choices), this would be it: controlling my tongue. So it was a good lesson for me too.
My kids love each other deeply and I know that this showed them the power of their words.
Both good and bad." ( here is a link to her blog with this post )
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1 comment:
Jace like tools so much I think that if I tried that on him he would say bad words just to be able to use the hammer. Good idea though. I'm in the process of reading Teaching your kids Joy and learning a lot.
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