Sherri and Tiddler – very good posts – and praising the child is spot on.
I tried to stress that perfection wasn’t the thing I was looking for – but that they even tried, put forth their best. If they tried, but had troubles, I was happy to help or praise them. Even in picking up their room – if they got it to the place they were satisfied and it even looked like they’d worked at it – it was fine. They’d tried. Maybe not to my standards, but so what.
I’d been so talked down to most of my life (not by my parents at least!! They were nothing but supportive always), I swore – not to my kids. No abuse, no downers. They were SO well-behaved that we could go anywhere, and take them with us. Even to this day, I brag about how we could go to a restaurant, church, card party, and take them along. 9pm bedtime came around, they came and asked where they could sleep and were perfect little gentlemen about it. (well, Jason had ADD pretty bad, but still he was so much better than what other parents complained about I was still quite proud of him)
REPORT ABUSE
