There has been discussion over on the Christian Adoption Blog about how much involvement a child should have in making restitution. The debate, I think, stems from whether or not you feel the child has control over the issue or not.

If a child vomits, as was the scenario one reader chose, generally speaking one would assume that is involuntary and thus a parent would operate under their usual modis operandus. If it is deliberate, to my way of thinking, the child must be involved in making restitution since... more

I am big fan of the book Parenting With Love and Logic by Foster Cline and Jim Fay. The focus of the book is on teaching children responsibility, and the authors point out that human beings learn best through making mistakes. When we have the freedom to make the wrong choice, we learn from the logical consequences of our actions and then make a better choice the next time.

One example they provide... more

Sometimes, as in the picture here, rules make no sense at all! Hopefully, with our kids, we're able to come up with rules that have logical consequences that help kids make sense of all these rules!

Parenting books line the shelves of every major bookstore and library in the country. How can we find the right parenting books that work for us and our children? I first parented a son, an easy-going biologically-born-to-me son. I checked out parenting books, every idea worked on my easy little child. I assumed I had read and learned well. Because... more

In the first two blogs, I talked about some of my childrens' cussing behaviors and some fun ideas we've tried for consequences.

Above all, regardless of the method you use to consequence a child with a colorful vocabulary, remember to have a positive... more

The fun quote above is from my 13yr old daughter - describing her 14yr old sister to a friend. The rest of this blog is directly from this adorable 14year old...these are her ideas about consequences for poor behavior.

(For background, this cutie was adopted by us almost 1yr ago. She came to our family because of her severe behaviors in her first adoptive family. She has tested. She's not done testing yet. But she sure is doing a lot better than she was!! The girl is no stranger to the "consequence"!)

I could talk about... more