General Discipline
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Focusing on the positive worked for one mother. Jackie was concerned about her 12-year-old son’s grades. She spent so much time “talking to” Justin about getting his homework done that she felt like they never talked about anything else.
Jackie needed help, so she signed up for a parenting class. After a few sessions, the class leaders encouraged her to stop “talking” to Justin about his homework altogether and to instead start spending fun time with Justin after school every day. After this fun time was over, Jackie was to instruct Justin to do his homework, without saying another word.
At first Jackie thought this idea was crazy. She was hesitant but followed the leaders’ advice, not knowing what else to do. To her surprise, once she put the plan into action, she found that Justin actually started doing his homework and they were having fun together. Within two weeks she started receiving reports from Justin’s teachers that he was turning in all his work.
When Jackie asked Justin what made him start doing his homework again, he simply said, “I don’t know. I just felt like doing it. But it sure helped that you weren’t nagging me so much.”