Saving Our Sanity

So the last few months Parker has had some difficulty listening and following through with things he's supposed to be doing at home. This has been accompanied by a lot of whining as well. It's been frustrating because we know that he is capable of behaving and listening since his behavior is excellent at school. He is one of those kids that teachers tells us they would like to have more "Parkers" in their classes.

And yet saving our sanity only cost us $10. How you ask? Monday afternoon we happened to be in Target. While Daddy and Wesley were in another part of the store, Mommy and Parker were wandering through the toy section in search of some ideas for Wesley for Christmas. And while we found some good ideas for the little guy, the big guy found something on a shelf that he was super excited about and asked if he could have - a responsibility chart!

What sold it for Mommy and Daddy was the cute little tile on the board that said "no whining!" The whole board is magnetic and you get to choose the different areas your child needs to be working on, plus there are even some blank tiles to make up your own stuff if you would like. We sat down with Parker and chose the areas that we felt Parker could use some help in, like consistently do without complaining, along with a few other things like homework and feed the cats. At the end of the day for every thing your child has completed they get a magnetic tile reward - star, trophy, smiley face, etc. Parker LOVES putting the tiles on.

For the last three days, our child has been a self-starter, checking his chart to see what needs to be done and in some cases doing it before he's even been asked! And this has helped Parker pretty much eliminate the whining because he has a visual chart of what he needs to do everyday, so when he has to do something it is not a surprise. Who knew sanity came for $10 from Target?