Parenting OS tips

blessings3

For me parenting OS style is important - whats your best tip - even simple ones please as somtimes I think we all miss the obviious and get a bit too complicated

Mine is KEEP SWEETS TO A FRIDAY!

Simple one but so many benefits - We only buy sweets now on a Friday after school - Makes friday exciting -the kids now find a few simple sweets really special - We never brought loads but had no routine and the kids started to expect the every time we went to the shop, so going to the shop just for apink of milk was becoming a negative thing as the kids would always try ands negotiate. We have a set amount of miney for the older one and set number of items for the littles. - Saves money on random buys - older children learn to handle money ie change /adding up etc but also i think more importantly they learn budjeting and how to make choices with thier money

We donnt link the sweets to behaviour and they are not used as a reward and they are not taken away as punishment

tiff

We do exactly the same for exactly the same reasons. It stops them asking during the week and they look forward to Friday.

HappyIdiotTalk

blessings3 wrote:

For me parenting OS style is important - whats your best tip - even simple ones please as somtimes I think we all miss the obviious and get a bit too complicated

Mine is KEEP SWEETS TO A FRIDAY!

Simple one but so many benefits - We only buy sweets now on a Friday after school - Makes friday exciting -the kids now find a few simple sweets really special - We never brought loads but had no routine and the kids started to expect the every time we went to the shop, so going to the shop just for apink of milk was becoming a negative thing as the kids would always try ands negotiate. We have a set amount of miney for the older one and set number of items for the littles. - Saves money on random buys - older children learn to handle money ie change /adding up etc but also i think more importantly they learn budjeting and how to make choices with thier money

We donnt link the sweets to behaviour and they are not used as a reward and they are not taken away as punishment

We have a 2 year old and a new baby so parenting is still new to us. I will watch this thread with interest. I like the sweets on Friday idea. That said we dont give our two year old sweets and when they're available she doesn't seem that bothered. But she loves fruit, she has some fruit everyday after meals and seems happy enough with it. Dont know what'll happen when she starts mixing with kids that do have sweets though.

pollys

Our sweet day is thursday, the children chose thursday, not sure why. Another thing we do is on a sunday all toys etc go back upstairs (I have 4 children the youngest has just started school) it makes it much easier for me to clean up on a monday, during the week the toys and games start appearing again, I've a table full of lego buildings at the moment but come sunday evening they'll all be back in the bedrooms.

bobsa1

As soon as my DD's started having homework we have always done the following, In from school, homework whilst having a drink and snack, half an hours tv, then dinner.

Loads of friends struggle to get kids to do homework but ours just come home and do it straight away, because they always have, no arguements and they just have drink and snack to keep them going.

Sorry if this isn't particularly os but homwork is done at the table whilst I cook dinner so they can ask me for help etc whilst I'm cooking.

Often they don't even watch tv as they join in getting dinner ready!

culpepper

We used to give ours 20p when they were toddlers and go with them to spend it,then as they got older it increased until it was £1 . At that point a poundland opened in our town and after that,all thought of sweets was forgotten .The money was used for a whole new toy or sometimes pad of paper,paints etc ...
We always encouraged our two to make presents for each other and family for special days. So biscuit and sweet making ,drawing and simple crafts were high on the agenda.

Caterina

A few tips (in retrospective) from someone whose children are now 17 y.o.:

- Start as you mean to go on!

- Give children a sense of the value of money, from very early on, not just for itself but as a reward for work.

- Do NOT provide party bags at your child's birthday party - when they are little they do not expect much but as they grow they (not necessarily your own, but other people's children) EXPECT more and more sophisticated 'gifts'. Explain to your children that the party in itself, with games and modest 'pass the parcel' gifts is enough!

- Which leads me to: teach them the concept of 'enough' - it is difficult when they are young but it will serve them well as they grow up.

- INVOLVE THEM EARLY in housework (I didn't and now I am regretting it bitterly - got a really messy pair of teenagers and great difficulties in getting them to do anything around the house!)

Love to all

Caterina

HappyIdiotTalk

Caterina wrote:

- Which leads me to: teach them the concept of 'enough' - it is difficult when they are young but it will serve them well as they grow up.

Could you please elaborate on that, I'm not with you.

360view

'For me parenting OS style is important - whats your best tip - even simple ones please as somtimes I think we all miss the obviious and get a bit too complicated

Mine is KEEP SWEETS TO A FRIDAY!'

Mine was to sing. I got the idea from a pre-school story book - just as the kids began to get shirty with each whilst out shopping I would begin to sing softly under my breath. That usually was enough to stop them because they knew I would only sing louder of they carried on...extremely effective!

blessings3

360view wrote:

'For me parenting OS style is important - whats your best tip - even simple ones please as somtimes I think we all miss the obviious and get a bit too complicated

Mine is KEEP SWEETS TO A FRIDAY!'

Mine was to sing. I got the idea from a pre-school story book - just as the kids began to get shirty with each whilst out shopping I would begin to sing softly under my breath. That usually was enough to stop them because they knew I would only sing louder of they carried on...extremely effective!

LOl I sing instead of shout sort of in an opera style '' Do you think you should be doing that '' and now they sing back lol - we also use singing for learning spellings as my oldest has ADHD so using as many different ''entry'' points is important

I also have a sort of silly song for each of them for a bit of positive reinforcement - I find they take in praise much more easily and jusyt sort of change it to praise the behaviours we are working on

JillD_2

Mine are 3 and 2 and I am tentatively tryong to encourage the 3 year old to help with chores which results in the reward of pocket money. Mainly because I want them to appreciate the value of money and noit just get pocket money handed on a plate, and also to encourage agood work ethic and get them to (theoretically)help around the house.

I also try and encourage him to not run the tap whilst washing his hands - a squirt of soap, rub together and then rinse off under the tap whilst counting to 5! And yes I know a bar of soap would be cheaper but the whole toileting thing is new to him and he is very into squirty soap.

We rarely buy them new toys , they wait for Christmas and birthdays. They may get the odd wee colouring book but certainly nothing big.

we went thorugh a phase of eating out earlier this year and they gopt very into fruit shoots. The side effect of this was when he started potting training the juice went straight though him and he was having accidents all over the place. so now we just take beakers of water when we go out and they don't get the jjuice. The only place we really go now for food is the leisure centre after swimming etc and as their menu is limited and staff os in short supply they don't object to bringing your own food so we bring a packed lunch and they kids love it.