1-2-3 Magic

Consider this one a book review. And a video review.

I honestly thought I was ready for parental discipline. I had been a youth care worker. There's not much your kids can throw your way that can shock you once you've been bitten, spit on, and been called a f---ing b---h about 5000 times.

Besides, I'd read William and Martha Sears stuff. I was an Attachment Parent. I would "know" what to do.

After Conor was born, I became totally lost. I was stressed. The girls were going nutso. Especially "the eldest" (parent code when we subtly talk about Taryn in front of her).

I heard about 1-2-3 Magic from a couple of different sources and got it out from the library. I was doubtful. I had tried counting. But I was willing to try anything. Read the book. Started applying the principles. I cannot believe the change. Most of the time now, when I start counting, the bad behavior stops. I'm more in control of my own emotions. We're all enjoying each other so much more. I tried explaining the principles to Rob, but it's not something that can be explained too quickly. So we got the 1-2-3 video out and watched it. Now that we're both on the same wavelength, I see an even better response.

One of the cool things about this method is it was developed not by some nerdy theorist but through application by many, many families. They would try things out, figure out what worked across the board and that became the method. I love the values it espouses: Parents must be the ones in charge of the house. Kids need to be disciplined in a respectful way. Before, I was majoring on respecting my kids but didn't do so in a way that I was in charge. They weren't responding and I was not handling my frustration well.

All this to say, if any readers are a bit frustrated with the whole issue of discipline I really urge you to give this a try. The video takes a couple of hours to watch, the book doesn't take much longer than that to read.