I’m a regular reader of Help 4 Your Family by therapist Kate Oliver and one of her posts from April has really stuck with me. In the post, she describes how to respond to a child’s demands. Here’s an excerpt from the post, titled “End the Hassle: Tell Kids what they Deserve“:
Kid: Mom, the other kids in my class don’t have to sit in a booster car seat any more! (feel free to imagine this as a whine)
Mom: You deserve to be as safe as possible and the booster keeps you safe.
My first grader, BE, has a “friend” who doesn’t always treat her very well. The two of them recently got in trouble at school and BE told me all about it (not voluntarily) when she got home. I explained to her that she deserves to have nice friends that don’t encourage her to do bad things. I suggested that she continue to be nice to this girl, but that she find other friends that are more worthy of her.
She listened – can you believe it? About a week later, she told me that her classmate, J, is her friend because she’s nice and she (BE) deserves nice friends.
Thanks for the tip, Kate!
Shannon Mackie 
Yay! I’m so glad it was helpful! I love this one and use it often with my children and my clients 🙂
Thanks again!
Reblogged this on help4yourfamily and commented:
My first testimonial 🙂
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