Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Tricks of the Trade

In dealing with recalcitrant behavior it's nice to have a bag full of tricks.

Little tricks quickly grow old and wear out, though.

They don't do anything to heal or regenerate the heart,

but they do provide ways to avoid the booby traps

the cantankerous ones might set for the wary parent,

and they help the contrary one realize they aren't in charge.

The trick pulled from the hat for today was jumping jacks.

Garbled, undecipherable speech, "forgetting", sluggishness, sudden inability to write numbers,  and other various and sundry purposeful annoyances were cured with a round or two of jumping jacks.

To be sure, the first few sets caused sparks to fly,

but mad jacks don't count...
only happy jacks pass muster,

depending on how much energy one might have for mad jacks decided how
many happy jacks were required.

Sometimes a little humor goes a long ways.

Other times Mom does jumping jacks right along with the kid,

To show it can be a blast.

The point is to cause  "jack" to refocus his attention...
Or it might just be to make trying to push buttons more work than it is worth because, you know, sometimes the child would like to make Mom work very, very hard to understand him, or to remind him, or to help him, or argue with him... but if she can save her breath and turn the tables on him he just might get tired first.

9 comments:

Oldqueen44 said...

Way to go MOM ! :)

GB's Mom said...

I use jumping jacks with GB because they help her regulate.

Kelly said...

Good job, mom.

Ruth said...

Have You tried strong sitting? It works great for my kids. Plus if you google it, it can lead you to some interesting stuff about kids who act like ours.
I also use the trampoline alot, drawing a figure 8 on the chalk board... Lots of brain building is needed for kids like ours.

acceptance with joy said...

I have tried a couple of time to do the sitting.... How do you get them started on it. They fight it with all they are.... Last week I started with 3 minutes and the two hour fiasco, a hike up the mountain and everything was a nightmare to get those three minutes done. I keep telling myself we are going to do this and then I get burned out on it before we get going.

Ruth said...

It took me 5 hrs the first time. 3 hrs the next. Now its 20 mins and we are done. The kids actually like doing it now. Consistency...
I'm wondering... Do you think he realizes that if he is stubborn enough you will interrupt the battle for A hike? I have a son who would much rather do hard work then school. If he knows I'm on the fence about giving him a job vs getting his school done, he will buck me all the more.

Ruth said...

Also have you ever looked at diet modification? I know when my kids have a good hot breakfast, like eggs, toast and potatoes, they can listen much better.

acceptance with joy said...

I don't know what James thinks. I know he doesn't like to work hard at anything. Maybe. I know he would like to outlast me. When it comes to this, she would like to outlast me, too. They definitely try very hard.

I normally serve a hot breakfast -crock pot beans, all that.

except he ate so much yesterday he
threw up his water this morning
and hasn't had breakfast yet.

Laurel said...

I'm trying this tomorrow for sure.
Thanks for the great idea. I just hope I don't start to laugh out loud. :)
Jim (Laurels main man)