Motivating children

The past few days have been rather difficult. It is as if my children had decided not to pay attention to my wife or to me. This is when one is tempted to become “Daddy Iron-fist”, and threaten with all kinds of consequences and give out punishments. But you can catch more flies with a drop of honey than with a barrel of vinegar. All you have to find is what honey is for your children.

The “Yes Mommy, yes Daddy” campaign had worked in the past, so we put it in practice again and it is showing results now. The goal is to get the children to obey promptly. We have drawn a mystery of the Rosary on a piece of paper and every time our kids obey when they find it hard to, they can put a sticker in the circle. This is a great source of motivation for them, because they know that they are making Our Blessed Mother and Jesus happy.

They also like to prepare the same campaign for themselves by drawing their own little circles on paper. Maybe they are not good enough to pray the Rosary on, but the cross on the bottom bead clearly indicates that they do it for Christ.

God is just, and hell is a reality for those who refuse to live their lives according to God’s will. Justice demands that there should also be negative consequences for certain actions, but the better motivated children are the less need there is for punishment.

Women are usually better to find out what motivates children. We daddies are not so much. But, hey, nowhere it is written on their good ideas: for women’s use only! Why not learn from them what is good, and even help them when they lack motivation?