Every child at some time disobeys the family rules whether it is fighting with a sibling, not making their bed, or not telling a parent where they are going. Then parents are required to provide some type of discipline. Often the parent ends up feeling like the bad guy, gives a consequence that is too severe, or doesn’t even discipline the behavior because they are tired and worn out. Enter the Better Behavior Wheel.
The Better Behavior Wheel is a behavior modification device that was created by Julie Butler, a mother of four. She was tired of the constant fighting between her children. One night, after a round of fighting, she and her husband told their children to write a list of consequences for fighting. They then put the consequences on a spinner and hung the spinner on the wall. Julie says, “Just the presence of the board, hanging on our kitchen wall, had an instant calming effect on the atmosphere in our home… It took about ten days before they forgot about the board and peace was shattered by another battle.” So the Wheel was pulled out, the spinner spun, and consequences enforced.
The wheel worked so well that Julie and her husband decided to use it for other things like: A Job Poorly Done, Leaving the Lights On, Stretching the Truth, Taking Without Asking, Talking Back, and Not Putting Things Back. Then to be fair they added a reward wheel called Just Desserts. The wheels were so successful in modifying her children’s behavior that she decided to market them online.
The reason Julie feels the wheel is so successful is because most parenting programs require the parent to maintain charts, read books, or watch a video. They are often a lot of effort to enforce. The Better Behavior Wheel is different because:
It’s simple – “Once it’s set up it only requires one thing, a spin of the wheel.”
Your child helps set it up. “This is really important because once your child has been invited to participate in choosing the consequences, he/she will have an investment in the process.”
The Better Behavior Wheel comes with a board with removable spinner (so the wheel can easily be changed), four wheels, and a variety of consequence and reward stickers, or parents can write their own. Parents and children can choose the type of behavior and then the consequences that they want and place them on the wheel. You can even have a different consequence wheel for each child, with appropriate age consequences.
The Better Behavior Wheel helps parent’s discipline and enforce consequences as well as providing rewards on the “reward wheel”.
The web site lists the following benefits to using the wheel:
- You won’t have to think up appropriate consequences, they are already on the wheel.
- Discipline is no longer a parent against child issue. The wheel is the impartial judge.
- No more disagreements between parents about what the consequences should be.
- Kids know that the discipline is fair, because they helped select the consequences for the behavior.
- You can be consistent. Your kids always know that inappropriate behavior results in a spin of the wheel.
- Use positive reinforcement with the wheel of rewards.
Of course the Better Behavior Wheel isn’t for everybody and works best for children between ages 4 and early teens. If your child has extreme behavior issues then you need to seek professional help. But for the average parent the Better Behavior Wheel gives parents a way to consistently and fairly provide consequences to actions and give kids a reason to behave appropriately.
To purchase the Better Behavior Wheel visit their website at www.better-behavior.com.