Parenting and Exercise
 

My wife and I were considering using some forms of exercise as a consequence to certain actions by our children. For example, out 6 year old always leaves her towel on the floor after bath time. She also always starts bouncing while eating.

We have tried other consequences, like chores, etc., but they aren't working.

So we are thinking about trying the avenue called "physical consequence". For minor things, such as stated above, me were considering the consequences of:

--25 situps or pushups or jumping jacks.

Thoughts?

My thought is if you use exercise as a form of punishment then they might associate exercise with negativity. I've done push-ups punishments with my boys for a short time when they were constantly calling each other gay, but I let up on it. And so did they.

Not sure. You could try it and see how it works out. Heck the military does it ;)

Yeah, we are worried about that very issue...seeing exercise in a negative way.

There are some actions that my youngest daughter just won't cease...the eating related ones, especially, because we worry she could choke. We've tried every other consequence known to man :)

I'm not sure if this is the best approach for her, but I might give it a go this week and see what happens.

that's the only problem I see, that maybe they won't want to exercise ever if they recall it being used as punishment....

I think I recall reading somewhere about siblings actually developing a good natured competition when it came to exercise consequences. I think I read it in a Barbie Barbell bio or something. Or could it have been Sneezy's thread? I'm getting old. I have a good memory, it's just short and not always clear.

i used the pushups as punishment for a while but to be honest i think i forgot to enforce more often than not and it just became irrelevant. really my kids hate to have to sit on their beds and do nothing for 10 mins than anything.

We tried that but my younger daughter would bounce back out of her room as immediately start doing what she was punished for :)

Not on purpose, mind you - she's not defiant. She just hasn't met a consequence that motivates her to remember yet.

have you thought of taking away a privalege instead of trying to use a consequence. like taking away the favorite toy or game or something that is part of their everyday life.

Done that too. Treats are her big one. She is a treat hound. TV is second. Spongebob, ftw!

We've taken away both, sometimes for a week...didn't help. She's right back to doing the same thing again, even during the punishment period.

right now i'm laughing cause it sounds just like my kids...........