Community Family Care
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Vision, Mission & Values
    • The Team
    • Our Trustees
    • Testimonials
    • Work For Us
  • Our Services
    • Family Group Conferences >
      • FGC Information for Kids
      • FGC Information for Family & Friends
      • FGC Information for Professionals
    • Working For Families
    • BoA Youth
    • Art Journal Project
    • LifeCoach
    • Story Explorers
    • Family and Child Support for Schools
    • Chill and Chat
  • News And Views
  • Useful Links
  • Contact Us

Parenting column: Making rules (Citizen & Echo)

15/2/2017

 
Picture

Make a rule that holiday is stress free

With half term upon us, a lot of parents can feel stressed by thought of what it can bring. If you don’t have house/ family rules in place already, now may be a good time to agree upon rules before the chaos of half-term ensues.

Children need limits to help them understand what behaviour is acceptable and how we would like them to behave, and rules are a brilliant way of supporting this.

We’ve put together some tips for coming up with house/ family rules that are effective.

Get together

Rules are more likely to be followed if everyone has had an input in to them. Rules shouldn’t be a list of demands from parents: they are guidelines for everyone in the house.

Choose a time that is calm to sit together and draw/ talk/ write down ideas for rules before deciding on which ones to use.

You can involve younger children in this as well, even if they are unable to have much of an input.

Fewer is better

A long, exhaustive list of rules is no fun for anyone. As an adult you’ll  struggle to remember them all so how can we expect children to do so?

As a general rule three to five house rules is a realistic number. Having short, clear rules also helps children (and adults) to remember them.

Be positive

Phrase your rules positively. Rules work best when they remind children what they should be doing rather than a list of things they shouldn’t be doing.

For example instead of ‘no shouting’ you could say ‘use your inside or quiet voice’.

Try to think of the behaviour you want to encourage when coming up with rules.

Be fair

Rules should be fair and realistic. Are you creating a rule that you’ll struggle to follow yourself? Are you being realistic about what your children can actually manage?

Rules need to be easy to follow in order for them to be effective, so keep them simple and easy to understand.

Make sure your rules are enforceable and you can back them up with consequences if you need to.

Consequences

Agree on consequences for rule breaking. That way everyone is clear on the expectations and what happens if these are broken.

Remember to follow through with consequences else rules become redundant. Remember that these are rules for the whole house, so if your child catches you breaking a rule be prepared to have a consequence just as they would!

Finally...

Display your rules somewhere where everyone is able to see them.

Make them colourful and engaging so they are eye-catching and can act as a reminder.

Comments are closed.

    News & Views

    Here's where we'll be posting our own news, as well as industry news. 

    You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

    Categories

    All
    Art Journal Project
    BoA Youth
    CFC In The Press
    CFC News
    Chill & Chat Sessions
    FACSS
    Family Group Conferences
    Get Crafty!
    Health News
    Industry News
    Parenting Column
    Training

    RSS Feed

Picture
People’s Postcode Trust is a grant-giving charity funded entirely by players of People’s Postcode Lottery.

Our charity received a £4,000 grant from the Trust to go towards IT equipment and to cover training and recruitment costs for five new sessional Family Support Workers.

www.postcodetrust.org.uk
www.postcodelottery.co.uk
Community Family Care
Unit A Kingsholm Mews
76 Kingsholm Road
Gloucester
GL1 3BD
​

01452 840999
info@communityfamilycare.co.uk
  • Community Family Care is part of Community Foster Care
  • Community Family Care is Investors in People accredited
  • Charity Registration Number: 1084124
  • Company Number: 03719101
Website by lizhawkins.co.uk
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Vision, Mission & Values
    • The Team
    • Our Trustees
    • Testimonials
    • Work For Us
  • Our Services
    • Family Group Conferences >
      • FGC Information for Kids
      • FGC Information for Family & Friends
      • FGC Information for Professionals
    • Working For Families
    • BoA Youth
    • Art Journal Project
    • LifeCoach
    • Story Explorers
    • Family and Child Support for Schools
    • Chill and Chat
  • News And Views
  • Useful Links
  • Contact Us