Can we talk about something for a second?

I was reading on a message board today about this philosophy called "1-2-3 method." It's basically what you hear at the grocery store when a child is doing something he's not supposed to, and his parent counts/yells to three so he can stop doing the behavior.

Here's my thinking.... why not teach your child to not do the behavior all together?!?! Why give them 2 MORE CHANCES to continue THEN stop. That's like saying, "Ok little Johnny. You can do that behavior for 2 more times. Then you have to stop. Not because it's wrong, not because it's dangerous, but because I am counting to three." This logic teaches absolutely NOTHING. I cringe when I hear this from parents. I've never heard a parent stop at the number 1. The kid knows that he has a whole other number to continue the behavior, so he does it.

Comments

Meghan W. said…
Uh- Lane was having a "moment" in Target the other day, and some woman stopped me to tell me to use this method... (I had put him in time out in the store, the 1st time he misbehaved). Anyways, she told me that I'm doing it "wrong."

Oh, the things I would've said, if my son wasn't there.

Btw, I'm going to add your blog to my RSS feed. :)