My son is usually a pretty well behaved child. Now I’m not saying that he doesn’t have his moments, because he does. He can get loud and obnoxious, or over excited and rambunctious, lippy and rude; however, that is not he norm. I can usually tell how he will behave on any given day by three things. First, how much sleep he got the night before; second, how he reacts when I wake him up; and third, how he behaves in the first 10 to 15 minutes. Due to the reasons for our travels, where we were going, the stress that was involved to people to begin with, and the amount of time we would be spending there, I wanted things to go as smoothly as possible. Quite honestly, they went better than I expected.
First, and foremost, I laid everything out on the line with him before we left. I went through everything I could think of with him so that he completely understood the situation, expectations, and rules. I honestly think this was the biggest help on our trip. He went into it knowing everything that could be known about our trip.
I made sure he understood the reason for taking the trip. We were going to visit Tiffany, and be with her for her graduation. Half of our family would be there, and the attention would not be on him most of the time, and that was something that he needed to be ok with. I made sure he understood what was expected of him. He was to behave. He was to talk nicely to everyone. He was to keep his voice down at all times, etc. I told him everything he was not allowed to do. He was not allowed to run in the halls. He was not allowed to yell. He was not allowed to leave the hotel room or the hospital apartment with out me, or someone that I specifically state that he was to go with.
I honestly think setting expectations at any point in time, and even on a daily basis if need be to start, is a very important thing. By doing this it helps them understand that they have choices and are making those choices. Whether they choose a good choice or a bad one is up to them, but they have to be willing to accept the outcome, because it was their choice.