Parenting is not easy and I do not take the responsibility of rearing children lightly. I was reminded of certain things Dan and I did to correct behavior of our children when they were at their worst behavior, (ages 6 through 15), which also brings smiles to everyone’s faces nowadays while reminiscing.
During the ages between 5 and 8 years old, children always finish eating their meals before their parents. This happens even more frequently at restaurants. Children under 6 years old, when they’ve finished eating, they will start spinning around in their seat, stand up in their chair, or if seated in a booth, take a look over the booth at fellow restaurant customers. Most of the time, our girls would begin conversations with strangers this way. With the same scenario, the behavior changes if they’re older than 6. At that point, they will simply stand and walk over to mom and lean on her. To teach our children the correct restaurant behavior, Dan would mock their spinning, standing and leaning. He didn’t do it in a rude way, but would simply demonstrate their behavior back to them. If executed in the right manner, the mockery brings smiles and laughter to those watching. These suggestions can also work on temper-tantrums, screaming fits, (screaming back doesn’t always work unless the child has a wacky sense of humor), stinginess, and demanding one’s own way. Simply change the mockery to whichever circumstance needed. Note: it is vital to keep the parent’s attitude lighthearted for the full affect. Never mock in anger.
Playfulness is always fun, especially when the children are older and want to participate in singing silly songs and skipping through parking lots holding hands with parents. This adjustment is effective with middle school age if their attitudes need a friendly pick-me-up. Long faces and eye rolling must improve while skipping through the grocery store parking lot.
When a pre-teen or teenager tries to leave the house inappropriately dressed, (or in an embarrassing fad), mom or dad goes back into the house and throw on the same over exaggerated item. This worked for us twice when Dan returned to the house, picked up a tee shirt belonging to our youngest; put it on himself to imitate the mid-drift shirt fad our eldest child was wearing. This immediately changes the mind of any pre-teen or teenager who doesn’t want to be seen in public with a badly dressed parent displaying their mid drift. This also works for short-shorts, rolled down sweat pants and tank tops. Note: wait until everyone is buckled up in the car and the parent, with nonchalance, goes back into the house and changes quickly. When you get into the car with the short shorts on, this is where the life lesson happens…no one wants to be embarrassed—child or parent—but we must draw the line somewhere.
And finally, if a teenager spends too much time on the front porch while saying good-bye to a date, simply create a blitzkrieg of flashing front porch lights, indicating someone on the other side of the door is watching, intently, what’s going on. These tips are proven Holt house, lighthearted parenting tips to keep laughter radiating within the home.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Creative mockery, a parenting staple