Monday, April 28, 2008

Reverse Psychology on Children

For a few years now, when the kids are doing something that I would rather they didn't, I tell them to 'do it again'. I know that children tend to do the opposite of what we want, so this little reverse psychology has worked quite often. It works so well that when I use it now, they know I mean business. Case in point:

I had told Ben to read this afternoon. He did. But he was squirmy. His legs were sliding around on the couch, then his back was slipping on the back of the couch. Our couch is leather, so it squeaks, but it's a low pitch squeak. I thought it was thunder at first. But I kept hearing it. "WHAT is that noise?!" Ben says "Mom, it's me, moving my legs around." So I asked him to do it again. But he wouldn't. So I asked him again, laughing on the inside, and thinking, he thinks I want him to NOT do it again. Ben says, "really? do it again?" "Yes", I say. I need to figure out what that sound is. 'squeak squeak'..."Ok Ben it is you." I want you to stop that now.
LOL
And he did. I didn't have to play psychology this time..

So lesson of the day:
Consistency works!

2 comments:

Laurie said...

Reverse psychology is great on kids when it works! I used it a lot on our children.

Eric said...

That is funny! If I remember correctly, our "reverse" psychology was the belt. It hit the "reverse" side of our body!

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