Consequences Teach Life Lessons

Here is a little reminder about consequences and how they teach life's lessons. Kids learn best when they make mistakes and live with the natural consequences.

Caution! Safety always comes first. Effective consequences cause inconvenience and discomfort - NOT PAIN. Consequences that create physical pain or danger usually backfire and cause children to lose trust with the adults.

For example, the child who forgets or refuses to wear his coat outside can learn a lot from a few minutes of being cold. Wise parents don't put their child in danger by having him/her go for a long period of time in the cold. Use your common sense about this.

REMEMBER: Genuine, sincere expressions of empathy must precede the consequence. Lectures about how much the child should learn from his/her experience cancel out the benefit of the consequence. It's best to keep the old mouth shut. No need to rub salt in the wound.

Thanks for reading! Our goal is to help as many families as possible. If this is a benefit, forward it to a friend.

Jim Fay