Question
We've implemented the ticket system at our house with our almost 4 year old about 2 months ago. Our target behavior is "obey the 1st time." It's really great actually! It helped me to communicate my expectations more clearly (i.e. When I need him to do something--right away or if he can finish up whatever he's doing first). I've stopped nagging. And I am actually giving him to chance (time and space) to obey. No hovering. It's also helped me to keep my frustration in check when I do have to ask a second time. It's simply a ticket gone. Brilliant.
Here's the trouble we are having. When we travel or have company, the tickets get a bit more tricky. 2 specific examples come to mind--his grandparent came to visit who he only gets to see about 2 or 3 times a year. We decided not do tickets during their 2 day visit because we both knew we would be "lenient" on taking tickets away because we didn't want him to end up on his room for the whole time they were visiting--because we had things planned to do and also they really wanted to see him. We didn't want to undermine our strictness and consistency of losing a ticket by being lenient. So we sat him down and explained we would not being doing the tickets while his grandparents were here. if he didn't not obey the first time he was asked to do something, he would immediately have a consequence. It went horribly. It was like we were back to square one.
The other example was when we traveled recently (and having learned from the grandparent fiasco previously mentioned) we continued with the tickets, but we found ourselves being lenient in taking tickets because there was no where for us to send him if he lost all his tickets (Visitting an extremely not child proofed home.) and we all know where lenient enforcement of discipline gets us...
Any suggestions on how we can modify the ticket system for when we travel or have visitors?
