Be a better parent - Day 26 - How to say sorry

 Yesterday's Be a Better Parent Challenge - Day 25 - Get Some Sleep
was pretty easy , for once, to adhere to. The girls have been going to bed at 6 pm on school days. It rocks and is amazing ( remember just a few months a ago I was telling you of the bed time trauma). Of course, going to bed early for me is midnight. But midnight is awesome when you are used to going to bed at 2 am. It's also amazing what a difference actually relaxing before bed makes in your restfulness.Hope you all got some extra sleep. When my girls were younger and full on bedtime crackheads, I would just go to bed with them. I had absolutely NO LIFE, but I got some sleep albeit if my bedtime was 9 pm.

Now let's talk a bit about apologies - not our (which are certainly important) but the apologies that our kids need to make. Usually this happens between siblings around my place, and while I'm pretty vigilant about making them use an appropriate tone and look the person in the eye, as well as explain what they're apologizing for. I also request they try to be sincere ( which is usually the hardest part to force between my girls).

Today's  Be a better Parent Challenge -Day 26: How to say sorry
Kristen offers a great technique fro saying sorry. The story goes that this mom and was at the pool while her kids were taking swim lessons, and prior to them starting, her son tossed a flipper in the direction of a college girl sitting on the side reading a book. It wasn't purposeful but it landed right near her and sort of splashed some water up.
The mom called her son over and asked him the following questions:
a) What could have happened?
b) What do you need to do to make this right?
I love this so much, mostly because I think it's so important for kids (particularly when they are at the age to do so, mind you) to understand the reasoning behind an apology, and to learn something from what happened.They need to learn that their actions have consequences and every action causes a ripple effect. These are two great lessons for anyone to learn, especially our children.

Go forth and practice  this technique. Let me know what works for your children. Happy Mothering!