STOP

[misty]

Well, Shannon has turned 13 & I still find myself having to nag & give multiple reminders about things she's been doing (well...supposed to have been doing) all her life. Like brushing her teeth, cleaning up the wet bathroom floor after her shower, turning lights off when she leaves a room, putting dirty clothes in the hamper, etc. I'm getting sick if nagging & she's getting sick of hearing me nag & we are getting in stupid arguments over these things.

So........I thought & thought & thought & finally came up with a system I hope will work. I call it STOP.

Stop
Think
Operate
Proceed

I am putting "STOP" signs up in problem areas. They are all shaped like stop signs. T he one in she'll see as she leaves her bedroom will say:

Stop

Think ( Do have any dirty dishes to bring downstairs? Is your light & TV turned off? Are your dirty clothes off the floor?)

Operate

Proceed

The one in the bathroom will have different reminders such as: Did you dry the floor, hang up your towel, flush the toilet?

I told her that shes to Stop at the sign, Think about whether she's done/has all the items on the list, Operate (do the ones she had forgotten), THEN she may Proceed on her merry way. I told her that once she is doing these every day things without having to be reminded on a regular basis, the signs will come down. I told her I will no longer nag, as long as she's reading the signs & doing the items...and that hopefully she'll find that she'll soon have the items integrated & be doing them without needing to think about them OR be reminded!

[katiekat]

Thats a great idea Misty! Wish Sean could read.

[jj]

I think that is a great idea! I wish you good luck on this.

[misty]

Thanks JJ! And KK...you could use pictures instead if you really wanted to try it. I'm thinking that every kid knows what a stop sign means so teaching him to stop & look at the picture of a neatly made bed, a toothbrush, or whatever, would still work! And start to get those things ingrained in him. Its worth a shot anyway!

[charliegirl]

That is a very good idea.

KK, maybe you could make one for Sean with pictures as visual reminders. You could even have him model doing the appropriate actions for you and take your own picture. Since he would be part of making the signs, it may encourage him just that little bit more.

[misty]

LOL..Barb, we posted at the same time! I love the idea of having Sean work on the signs with his mom & having him in the pics would be cool!

[jj]

Well since KK is quite the photographer these days that shouldn't be a problem.

I really do like the idea of involving the kid(s) in the photo's as reminders. Great idea!

[unicorn]

I love the sign idea Misty! About a month ago I put up a dry erase board on the bathroom door, with the things Tiff needs to do each day and night. She is to go down the list and check each item off each day. After she goes to bed I erase the check marks for the next day. Thursday she went and erased the whole board and said she wasn't doing it anymore. Grrrrrr. So I promptly put the list back up and took away a privilege.

Hope the signs help Shannon.