Where and How is a General Behavior Contract for Kids Used?
Particular habits and specific behaviors of the child can also be targeted while preparing a general behavior contract for kids.
Simon called me yesterday to find out a solution to his problem. He was a single parent and he was finding it difficult to handle his 11 years old child. He had many conflicts with his young age son and he wanted some help from me. I wondered why is it a common problem for the parents to raise their kids. Most of the parents are searching for the solutions over the Internet, asking their friends and family members or seeking counseling help to control their children.
I suggested Simon to sign a general behavior contract for kids with his son. But now the new question arised as how to make a general behavior contract for kids as we all know that the kids are smart enough to find loopholes in the contracts. We tried different sources to have some research on how to frame a general behavior contract for kids. The parents need to be cautious while deciding the rules and regulations of the contracts. The effective consequences should also be decided upon mutually.The contract should be fair to both the parties. It should be easy to understand.
We all know that the children behave in an unacceptable way. Sometimes, the children get themselves confused about how to behave in a particular situation. It is parents' responsibility to set rules for the child as to how he should behave. If the rules mentioned in the contract are violated, then the child should be punished or penalized.
Particular habits and specific behaviors of the child can also be targeted while preparing a general behavior contract for kids. You can set the limits for the child keeping in mind all the parameters. Incentives and rewards can be offered to the child if the rules and regulations are obeyed by the child. On the other hand, punishment should be given if the rules are violated. The punishments should be reasonable and fair. You cannot make your child stay away from playing gaming console for one month if he breaks the curfew rule once in a month. If the child arrives 2 minutes late, you cannot ask him to pay a penalty of $ 20. The decided punishments should not be too harsh. But of course, you can think of multiplying the punishment or penalty if the same rule is violated again and again.
Go step by step while working upon the rules for the child. If your child does not complete the homework and his grades are poor, then prepare a contract which addresses both the problems. Once you see the improvement in these areas, then you can think of targeting another area. It is good to address 4-5 problems in each contract as you cannot think of changing all the changes at once until they are inter-related to each other. Revisions in the contract can be done from time to time. New contracts can be introduced as per the requirements.
