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Old 07-23-2008, 09:45 AM   #41 (permalink)
snowy
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Location: Oregon
Are you modeling the behavior you wish to see? Are you exercising with your child and eating healthily in front of them? Are you being consistent in this behavior? How about taking a walk with the entire family every night after dinner? And I mean EVERY NIGHT--consistency is key to changing behavior.

You cannot require a child to do anything you would not do yourself. You cannot expect your child to desire to go outside and play if you do not do so too--every time, not just sometimes. Furthermore, even in free play children desire structure. If a child has little to no experience with imaginative free play you cannot expect them to know how to spontaneously do it overnight. You might want to choose more constructive outdoor activities for your child to engage in. Does your yard need work? How about planting a garden?

How about organized sports? Parks and Rec programs? Fishing? Choose activities where you can model correct behavior for your child.

Every night you should sit down with yourself and review how you interacted with your child that day. What about his behavior did you like that day? What did he do well? How did he improve over previous days? What went wrong? What can you do better? This is the hardest part but the most necessary--parents lose perspective when it comes to their children because they're so busy parenting, they never get a moment to step back and really look at the situation. Praise him when he does well and behaves the way you want him to, and give him consequences when he behaves in a way you do not like, by either taking away privileges or assigning more work. I would recommend the latter as it requires him to be active. But above all, BE CONSISTENT. Stick to your guns. Be the bad guy. And your daily time-out to think over the day and his behavior will help you be consistent.
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