The Love and Logic Generic Consequence
by Jim FayWhat do you do when a child has caused a problem or violated a rule and there appears to be no reasonable consequence available?
Love and Logic parents know the answer to this one. They use household chores for the consequence. However, they use chores in a very special way so that the youngster can make a reasonable connection to his/her doing the parent's work, and the rule violation.
It's all in the delivery
Love and Logic Parent:
"Winston. You snuck out and spent the night hanging out in the convenience store parking lot. Then you climbed back in your window, thinking I would never know about it. I told you I would have to do something about that, but I'm sorry to say that I haven't figured it out yet even though I've spent hours on it."
"Do you know what's sad about that? I can't do two things at once. What I was going to do with my time was clean up all the dog messes in the backyard, rake the leaves, and edge the lawn and sidewalk. So...I guess as soon as you have those jobs done, we'll forget about this problem of yours. Thank you. You don't need to work on those jobs right now. Just have them done by the end of the day on Saturday. Thanks, pal."
If there is any doubt about how this parent is going to guarantee that Winston accomplishes these tasks, study the Love and Logic audiotape "Didn't I Tell You to Take Out the Trash?"
©1998 Jim Fay
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