Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Consequences Are the Pits, But Necessary: My Advice to Parents

As you probably already know, if you read this blog very often, Kalisha has a behavior and commitment contract. If she doesn't keep her commitments, she suffers the consequences, which are: she loses her phone and computer for 24 hours. That is the worst possible scenario for her.
This morning, she did not want to volunteer at the food bank like she does every Wednesday morning for 2 hours. TWO hours.
She woke up in a bit of a funk this morning and immediately stated she did not want to go. I stopped cajoling and giving reasons why she should a long time ago. I simply said, "Well, you know the consequences."
Usually, after she thinks about it for a bit and considers the alternatives, she decides to go. Once she is showered and dressed, she is happy to go. Not today. She stated every reason she could think of to not go. I took the phone and the laptop, hid them both and went on with my day.
She was not a happy camper. Around 10:15, she asked to go. I told her it was too late. She would only be there for 30 minutes. She said she would walk there. I told her to go ahead and walk, but it still didn't count and she wouldn't get her phone back.
Her next solution was to work at the same church but for their free neighborhood dinner tonight. Nope, that wasn't going to work either.
She took a nap, read some books and continued to grumble; quietly. She is never mean or nasty when she is angry; just grumpy. She doesn't talk much, barely answers questions when asked and eats by herself.
I can live with all of that. Actions have consequences and if she is ever going to survive in this world, she needs to learn that. I don't usually offer advice to other parents of special needs children/adults, but I'm going to go out on a limb here. So often, I see huge allowances made for disobedience, rudeness and bad behavior by some individuals who actually know better. I am not talking about the meltdowns from sensory issues, etc. I am speaking of the child/adult who knows what they are doing is unacceptable behavior. Please don't just excuse it. We, as parents are not going to be around for our children forever and we all profess to want the world to accept our kids. If we really want that, then do your child a favor and give them consequences for unacceptable behavior. The world and society, in general does not care about their disabilities and will not accept their cute bad behavior. The sooner they accept responsibility for their actions, the happier they will be. *When I say 'consequences' I do not mean spankings, beatings, or verbal or emotional abuse of any kind. I am talking about real-life consequences, like the loss of something they like a lot. Example: Kalisha's phone and computer. It totally ticks her off, but it does not endanger her and she thinks long and hard about repeating the action that caused the loss. (Obviously, she didn't think about it long enough this morning)

No comments:

Post a Comment

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...