Shouting at children: Mummy reward charts – can they help?

The not shouting at children mummy star chart

I admit I am not a perfect mother, and occasionally I can be found shouting at children; usually they are my own children, which I guess is good, but I would rather not be doing it at all.

However, if its been a long, hard day for us all, tempers are frayed and if listening ears have been removed and handed to the sock pixies; mummy can get a little bit cross…

My son pointed out that he and Chatterbox had a star chart, so why didn’t I. So now I do. It’s for not shouting at children, and it seems to be going better that I thought it would!

There are a number of reasons why having a mummy star chart is a good idea. We thought that it:

• Gives the kids some control; small people don’t have much control of their lives, they really don’t. And if mummy has a star chart that they put stickers on when they think she has been “good” it is giving them some of that control, no matter how small a bit of it, back
• Inspires team work in the family; we are all working together as Team Neale to help mummy to get her sticker. Just like I help them to get their tidy up stickers by helping them tidy up at the end of the say, they try and listen that little bit more so that mummy can get her sticker too
• Shows that shouting isn’t right; it is showing my children that I am taking responsibility for my actions, and that I know that shouting at them is wrong, so I am trying to work to stop doing it
• Helps the kids have a bit of fun; the kids love putting my stickers on at the end of the day
• Helps me to behave better! I like getting a sticker! I like seeing their faces when they put it on, so its actually working.

So why not make yourself a mummy star chart too; just use your picture instead of your kids in our store. We have a reward chart, but you could just as easily use one of our progress charts and pick a reward for yourself when you get to your goal. We went to the beach when I did one of these with the kids last time!

Helen

Helen is a mum to two, social media consultant, and website editor; and this site is (we think) the only Social Enterprise parenting magazine! Since giving up being a business analyst when juggling travel, work and kids proved too complicated, she founded KiddyCharts so she could be with her kids, and use those grey cells at the same time. KiddyCharts has reach of over 1.1million across social and the site. The blog works with big family brands (including travel) to help promote their services, as well as offering free resources to parents of kids under 10. It gives 51%+ profits to Reverence for Life, who fund a number of important initiatives in Africa, including bringing running water and basic equipment to a school in Tanzania. Helen has worked as a digital marketing consultant (IDM qualified) with various organisations, including Channel Mum, Truprint, Talk to Mums, and Micro Scooters. She loves to be creative in the brand campaigns she works on. Get in touch TODAY!

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