Setting Limits and Boundaries: How to Say No to Your Kids

Jeff Fink and Jon Halpern, certified teachers with masters degrees in behavioral psychology, have been leading parenting workshops for 18 years, sharing their solid insights into how parents (and teachers) can say “no” and stick to it. According to them, it's not the severity of negative consequences that get a child's attention, but rather the certainty of said consequence that will actually stop bad behavior. Performing a skit where one acts as the teen and the other as the father, Fink and Halpern demonstrate how children often employ a familiar pattern in order to get what they want: first begging and pleading, followed by promising and negotiating, then moving on to guilt or threats geared to trigger an emotional response, and finally rebelling (tantrum, etc.). The presenter calls this pattern “the consequence polka” and the enclosed parent guide has questions for further discussion based on this little dance. Recommended. Aud: P. (R. Reagan)