Behavior Chart

Micah's behavior has slowly gotten worse the last couple of weeks. At first he had two extremely awful days in a row. He recovered from those and I thought he was over it and that maybe he'd gotten it out of his system. But in the last two weeks he's had another insanely bad 3 days here and there. Days where it seems his ultimate goal is to see how many rules he can break. There are some days where he gets power and pleasure from getting in trouble. He's been hitting and screaming in our faces, which is the last straw.

Now that Terry and I have reached the end of our discipline tools, I figure it is time to try something new.

I sat down last night with pen and paper and laid out my goals.

1. To discipline without Micah spending his whole day in "time out."
2. To create a system that is easy for Terry and I (and babysitters in our house) to follow without much brain power. (I'm anticipating a significant decrease in brain power as pregnancy brain takes over and then sleep deprivation rules our lives the first 3 months Caleb is here.)
3. To create a sort of "authority" on discipline that Micah can understand so he can better understand the rules and follow his progress.

Then I wrote down all of the things Micah gets in trouble for on a regular basis:
-touching the dishes in the dishwasher
-playing with the plugs and outlets
-screaming
-whining/crying
-saying "no"
-not cleaning up his toys
-taking off his shoes in the car
-peeing in his pants or on the floor
-hitting
-plain ol' disobeying

I found a clipart image online to coordinate with each unacceptable behavior. I printed them on colored paper and backed them with poster board to make them sturdy. I did the same with some desired behaviors like putting away his toys, eating his meals, going potty in the potty, and climbing into his car seat instead of scrambling into the front seat. I also made a card with a smiley face to represent any good thing he does to make Terry or I happy.



I bought a magnetic white board and these little magnetic clothespins.



I wrote Micah's name at the top of the white board and made a happy face and a sad face. Each with a series of boxes beside them leading to either a check or an "x."



It's nothing fancy but it was cheap and it's flexible enough to change as Micah grows and as our discipline goals change. (For example, I can easily print a square to represent "helping with the baby" once Caleb is here.) Now every time he does something good he gets to pin his own square to the coordinating box. When he breaks a rule I put a sqaure up.

When he fills the row of good things he'll get a reward like a stamp, sticker, or sweet treat. When he fills the row of bad things he'll go to time out, get a spanking, or I'll take away some of his toys for the day.




I have no idea how well this will work- or if it will work at all. I do know when he woke up from his nap and found the white board he was excited about it. I hope he can begin to see the correlation between his actions and the consequences. And I'm hoping to rely on the board as the answer to "why" Micah's getting in trouble. As in, "You leave me no choice. You filled the row of x's so now I'm taking away all of your balls." I'll keep you filled in...