On the first CD of my Teaching Self Government Audio Seminar I speak about teaching your family about having a mission as a family group.  The mission is what you will do to reach your family’s vision for the future.  An important part of teaching your children about working toward a vision and living for [...]

Nicholeen,
I’ve got “bubblegum pink” paint all over the carpet (and some furniture) right now that should NOT be there, and I have yelled and got angry at 3 of the 9 kids one who is under 24 hr priviledge loss but didn’t have anything to do with it, and I came in to my computer [...]

One of Those Days
Have you ever had one of those days where you go, go, go?  On these days there are lots of places to get to, you are always running late and your children seem to be grumpy, whiny, and aggressive.  You don’t know if you’ll ever master getting out the door with a [...]

…We just started this approach to parenting a few weeks ago, and while the first couple of weeks went well because the kids all loved the praise and even the novelty of picking jobs out of a jar, we’ve hit this bump where most are dawdling, and adding another chore that just doesn’t get done [...]

Nicholeen: we’re doing our best to implement a system of family government following your plan.  I have the 6 cd set and I’ve listened to them twice, and I’m reading the book as well…
…What do you do about a child who chooses to be out of instructional control forever?  Just give him his 3 square [...]

“Grandparents need the lessons taught by Nicholeen. I have 43 grandchildren. As I took care of 5 of them just recently, using the “Family Council” as a way of solving problems (as taught by Nicholeen) was so helpful to me in working with the grandchildren. Thanks, Nicholeen!”
I loved this comment because it shows that the [...]

Parenting Toddlers ~ Small Successes
Nicholeen,
I’ve been working with my son Jack for the last six months to appropriately accept correction. He’s 21 months old. He’ll do something inappropriate, I’ll tell him the right thing to do and then say, “You say, ‘OK, mom.’” I’ve been wondering, over the course of the months, if my efforts [...]

“I was wondering….what do you do about name calling, or when children say bad words? My children say crap, stupid, dumb, etc… No matter how many times I tell them to stop, they don’t. So would you have them do a chore everytime they named called, or said a bad word? or Would you do [...]

We have a problem with people getting into things in the house without asking.  For example chocolate chips, cookies in the freezer and so on.  We also have a problem with dishonesty.
The consequence for these (decided by the family) Dishonesty: 30 min. of  chore.   stealing: 2 heavy maintenance chores (if self-reported then 1 heavy maintenance  [...]

“Waaaaahaaaaa!” screamed Porter, my five year old, from the other side of the family room.  I looked over there just is time to see Paije, his much older sister, trying to pry one of her shoes from her little brother’s hands while keeping a close eye on the other shoe.  Before I could even get [...]