Question
Where do we start? We have 3 girls age 6, 5, and 4. They are ALL out of control. Reading through the Well Behaved Child I'm overwhelmed with all the methods. My husband and I have started practicing "alpha speech", respond calmly, etc. But, our kids are taking that as license for a free for all. Because the punishment isn't immediate they pretty much still ignore me and go on to more and worse behavior throughout the day. Tonight we plan on stripping down the bedroom and playroom. But, I'm afraid that will just lead to them branching out into destroying all of MY things instead of theirs. I feel like I'm out of punishments. Like nothing I could take away will cause that agony principle to take effect. Also because they share their bedroom it won't be a punishment, they'll just play together. We already don't have a tv or video games to take away. How do we "up the ante"? Or, Is this just the "gets worse before it gets better" phase? I feel like my kids just think they're getting away with everything because I'm not yelling or getting upset?
