I’m beginning to think behavior charting’s not for me. I have tried it on more than one occasion without much success. I decided to give it one more try. Well, it’s been five days and I have to say it’s not going as well as I had hoped. The first day, mind you, went really well. Tyler loves stickers and I had these big gold stars and he was in heaven. Like I said he did well the first day. Days 2 through 5 didn’t go nearly as well. Frankly, he didn’t seem to give a rat’s behind about the gold stickers. I’ve explained that he won’t get a reward unless he earns it. Somehow I don’t think he believes me, even though I’ve shown him that I am serious. I believe he thinks he will be able to give me those big puppy dog eyes and I will give in.
I know it’s much too soon to give up, it hasn’t even been a full week yet, but I am discouraged by the early results. After all, as adults we are also motivated by the promise of a reward. We work, we get paid. That’s life. We don’t work, we don’t get paid. That’s also life.
I’ve reviewed my plan and feel I’m doing it correctly according to the research I did prior to making the decision to try it one more time. I didn’t make it too challenging. I tried to start with the least annoying behaviors so that he can be successful before I move on to the big ones. I reviewed with him every night how he did, giving examples of why he didn’t get a star for a particular behavior. And I thought the rewards were motivating enough but now I’m not so sure. So I had to make the decision whether I should give it more time or maybe fine tune the chart and/or the rewards? I swear I was beginning to feel like one of those slacker moms. My mother didn’t chart my behavior and I turned out okay, didn’t I?
Well, after talking with Tyler I decided I would keep trying. He says he wants to earn his rewards. So we’ll give it another few weeks, perhaps a month and see how it goes. I’ll let you how it turns out. Wish me luck.
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