Telling your kid off is exhausting, can make you feel terrible, and easily gets confusing: “You said that when she said that.” “I warned you that you’d be on a warning.” “Never say the word shit, only bad people say it, oh fuck, whoops,”... and so on.
But one dad has come up with a way around it – for children old enough to read anyway. Writer and PR Ben Brooks-Dutton gets his son to sign a contract, presumably worked out together, which hangs on the fridge.
As anyone who has ever had a run-in with a bad landlord knows, if something’s in writing, you can’t go back on it. There’s a difference between “being naughty” (which nobody can take you to court for) and “being in breach of contract” (which they can, obviously).
As soon as something is down there in black and white and your own signature is staring back at you – that’s it, you’re donezo.
Just think how much time and effort could be saved by nodding your head towards that big signed piece of paper on the fridge, rather than getting into a war of words. No more doing that thing where you have to take a really deep breath and hold it for a second because otherwise you might actually implode.
[Read More: How (not) to discipline your kids]
You can just point – and assert authority without having to say a single word.
This seems like the future of parenting, if you ask me. It’s replacing angry conversations with constructive ones about what needs to be worked on.
Of course, you’ve gotta get your kids to sign the thing first – but we’ll leave that to you.