different wardrobe is on his mind at all.
Here are some choices you have at this point:
- Set the timer for ten minutes and tell your son, “I want your
clothes changed before the timer goes off.” Avoid what we call
“shouldy” thinking—the kind of parental thinking that expects
kids to act like adults. If you were into shouldy thinking, you
might have said, “I want your clothes changed before the timer
goes off. I already told you that. What does it take to get you to
listen to me for once? I’m the one who has to do the laundry,
you know, and buy you all sorts of new things to wear!”
You could also add a reward or a consequence to the act of
changing clothes before the timer goes off. You would not do
this every time, but sometimes a strategy like this can jump-
start the kids into remembering a new behavior. “If you change
before the timer goes off, you can stay up ten minutes later
tonight. If you don’t beat the timer, bedtime is ten minutes
earlier.” Simple, calm, straightforward. - Can you use the docking system here? No, because you can’t
dress him and charge him for the service. You could, of course,
use the docking system if what you had asked your son to do
was take out the garbage. After his first refusal of the refuse,
you might simply say, “Do you want to take out the trash, or do
you want to pay me to do it?” Good maneuver. - How about natural consequences for our reluctant clothes
changer? This tactic is a possibility. The boy who plays outside
in his school clothes might be required to wash his outfit as
soon as he comes in. - Finally, you could consider using counting. Can your son
change clothes in two minutes? Maybe. So as the boy is
walking out the door—school outfit still on—you simply say,
“That’s 1.” He probably won’t know right away what you’re