Good Choices and Bad Choices Bins

It's no secret that parenting is rough especially when it comes to discipline. Honestly I don't know who it's harder on, me or the kids! Recently after a week of exhaustive discipline I came up with these. I saw a post online about consequences and rewards jar so I just adapted that concept and made it my own and thus the "good choices" and "bad choices" bins were born. The concept is simple: when you make a bad choice (i.e. break the house rule, don't do chores, etc) you get a consequence from the bad choice bin and if you make good choices you get a reward. Some parents do a consequence or a reward for each and everything but that seemed a bit much for me since my girls are a little older (6 and 8) so I came up with this system:

For the Bad Choices Bin- I use a three strikes method. Strikes are given for breaking a house rule or not doing chores and for every three you get in a single day you must choose a consequence for your bad choices. I also reserve the right to give an immediate consequences for the most serious offences like hitting.

For the Good Choice Bin- I use a chart (you can download it below) to keep track of my girls goals everyday. Their goals are things like following the house rules (note: if they get three strikes this one is an automatic sad face), chores, reading their Bibles, etc. At the end of each day they get a smiley face for the goals they accomplished and a sad for what they missed. If they have more smiley faces than sad faces, they get a reward for their good choices. I do have the power to give an immediate reward if one of the kids does something extra good such as going out of her way to help others or doing extra chores.

What's in the bins- the girls and I came up with rewards and consequences together and they include all kinds of stuff. Here's our list and you can get them on the printable below as well.

Consequences

Extra Chore (mommy or daddy get to pick)
Go get your ipod and put it away You’ve now lost it for the day
Tell the TV goodbye Because it’s done for the day and you know why
a half hour early to bed you so hopefully you’ll make better choices tomorrow 
GRACE No consequence this time which is not what you deserve “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,” Ephesians 2:8 
Give mommy a 10 minute foot rub
Do 25 jumping jacks while saying “I will not (name the offense) anymore”
Run in place for 90 seconds while saying “I will not (name the offense) anymore”

Rewards

GOOD JOB! Pick a sticker
YOU’RE A ROCKSTAR! Get a tattoo (temporary, of course!)
SWEET! Pick a candy bar from the store
WAY TO GO! Pick a show on Netflix
SUPER! Stay up a half hour past bedtime
YOU’RE AWESOME! Game time! (pick a game and let’s play!)
SPECTACULAR! Craft time!
YOU DESERVE SOME EXTRA FUN! Pick a new game from the app store

Why I love it- First of all I love it because it works! I've had to dole out some consequences here and there but we definitely have given out more rewards and I feel like the girls are learning how their choices can affect them. I also feel like it takes a lot of pressure off of me. It used to be I'd get all flustered if we had a bad day and had to try and think of proportional consequences for each offense but now I have a simple system that adds no stress to me or the kids. You mess up- you get a consequence from the bin. You do well and you are rewarded. It's something they understand and it keeps me from feeling like a warden all day long.

So you wanna give it a try? Follow the links below to get the editable Word files.

The Goal Chart
Rewards
Consequences 

 

Posted in: Parenting