Question
Our two oldest children, ages 6 and 4, bicker and fight constantly during meals. How's this as a variation on tickets to use at mealtimes: at the start of each meal each child has on his placemat a small cup containing 3 beans. The rules for mealtimes are:
1) sit in your seat
2) no fighting
3) be pleasant
Each time a rule is broken, the child in question takes a bean out of his cup and puts it in another cup in the middle of the table. If two children are fighting they both lose a bean. If a child loses all his beans, his meal is over and he goes to timeout for the rest of mealtime.
I guarantee that my children will go hungry for at least a few meals, and possibly awhile longer, if we implement this strategy. Is that ok? I really hesitate to make them go hungry. My parents never did that to me, but I don't recall acting up so much at mealtimes either.
