Friday, March 22, 2013

Whining Prevention

Some of my kids seem to have gotten whinier and whinier lately.  And to say it is driving me bonkers would be an understatement.  So, for the next week I am going to employ the following strategies to see if I can't bring the level back to tolerable.

1. Respond Immediately.  Even if it means I tell them they have to wait a minute, at least kindly acknowledge they are requesting something (to speak/water/to play, etc.) when they are talking politely.

2. Think first, then answer.  I have a bad habit of saying 'no' really often.  And sometimes it doesn't really matter.  But the worst is when I say 'no' twenty times and then decide it's not that big of a deal and let them.  Probably nothing promotes whining worse than letting it work.  So choose my 'no's wisely, not just as a first response.

3. Use a form of this phrase: "You are whining.  I can't understand you.  I would be happy to listen to you when you can use a nice voice like mine."  And then don't listen until a non-whiny voice is used.  Obviously since the offenders are 3 & 4, I will probably have to repeat this phrase several times at first.

4. Increase praise.  Especially for the use of nice voices in everyday life.  But all around too.

I am hopefully this will work, if I am good about it...

2 comments:

lilibet said...

Did this work? I'm being driven crazy over here.

kelsey said...

It helped a lot. I need to revisit it, especially letting them know I will not respond to whining, only nice voices.