I called Kathryn in when I feared that my 1 and 3 year olds were moments away from being ‘one step ahead of me’ rather than the other way round. And in fact, almost as soon as Kathryn arrived, she observed that they were already there!
All was not lost and within hours, Kathryn had provided me with several clear strategies, which were both easy to grasp for me, and exciting for the boys. Our initial problems of squabbling and fighting back were very quickly resolved, and although the boys found ‘a shift back in power’ hard, they soon got used to the new ‘ways of working’ and calm quickly returned to the house!
What has been most interesting to note, is that once you are back in control and a clear reward/consequence programme is in place, the benefits spill over into all parts of behaviour. Both of my children now pride themselves in ‘being good’ and love to receive their rewards and also understand clearly when they are fast approaching the boundaries of consequence.
We’re still not perfect, that’s life, but with practice we are a considerably happier and calmer household for Kathryn’s recent visit.
Mrs Harker in London