Discipline for Boys

Many people ask me how we discipline our children.  Well, we do a lot of things but today we had to discipline for heart behaviours.  Ayden and Ewan fight a lot.  They are 7 and 4 (almost 5).  They constantly are at each others throats and then the next second playing happily.  It drives me crazy. 

Today the fight was over something insignificant.  They both spent some time in the corner while I got the ankle bond.  The boys needed some time together.  Really together.  In order to fix the heart issue of them not wanting to work together (be it playing or anything else), we tied them together.  They had to work out what to do, when to do it and how to do it.  It was a battle.  There were tears.  There was fighting and there was arguing.  BUT they started to work together.  They had no choice.  Either they both colored on the floor, both peed or both went to the playroom, they BOTH had to do it.  It helped their communication, and I swear to you it was the best way to confront this issue. 

They are still tied together.  They get the "ankle bond" for 30 minutes, and the 30 minutes starts again every time they squabble.  This could take all day today.   It was novel at first - almost fun.  But that novelty wore in about 10 seconds.  By the time I got out the camera, they were no longer having fun...

Here is a picture... since a picture is worth a thousand words...