positive behavior, however, moms and dads have to be more skilled
motivators.
When they’re beginning 1-2-3 Magic, most parents use counting to
manage Stop behavior for a week to ten days before tackling Start
behavior. If you try to do the whole program at once (both Stop and
Start problems), it may be confusing or take too much energy.
Equally important, it will be a lot easier to get the kids to do the good
things if they know you have gotten back in control of the house by
effectively managing their obnoxious conduct.
When you begin using your Start behavior tactics, don’t be
surprised if you run into testing and manipulation. Your daughter may
not thank you for training her to clean her room. If you have worked
on counting negative behavior first, you will have had a fair amount
of experience in dealing with Stop behavior before you tackle the task
of getting the kids to do the good things—so have your counting
strategy ready in your back pocket.
Quik TipWith Start behavior, you can use more than one tactic at a time for a particular
problem. You may even come up with some of your own strategies. Remember:
train your kids to do what you want, or keep quiet!In dealing with Start behavior, keep in mind one of the basic rules
of 1-2-3 Magic: train the children or keep quiet! The 1-2-3 program
includes a method for handling just about every kind of problem your
kids can throw at you. So use these methods! Kids, for example, are