Cell Phone Problems

Hi Mark,

K's behaviour towards me has significantly improved since he lost his phone twice in one week (for 48 hrs each time).

However, last night he was rude. When I told him to hand over his phone, he refused and said I'd have to physically wrestle him to get it (that would end badly, I knew).

Instead of getting physical, I said until he gives me his phone for 48hrs, I would not be driving him anywhere. He is holding out still, but it has only been one day (he threatened to get his father to drive him, but interesting didn't pursue it, and instead missed cricket training).

My question is: should I continue with this position, or should I snatch it from him when I have the chance, and hide it? (He would probably rampage, but if that's what has to happen, I can live with it).

I would be grateful for your perspective.

V.

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Hi V.,

First of all, “he was rude” is very vague. What did he actually say or do?

Second, what is he doing to “earn” cell phone privileges?

Whenever a child introduces a new problem on top of an existing one, parents should put the new problem in the “deal-with-it-later” file (*please see Q & A - On Discipline in the chapter of the eBook entitled “The Art of Saying No” – Session #2 – online version).

Re: …he refused and said I'd have to physically wrestle him to get it…

In this case, he is grounded, but the clock does not start until he hands you the cell (*please see Instructional Videos #16 and #17).

Mark

Online Parent Support

She got a little award at assembly the other day for "improved behavior in the classroom"...

Hi Mark,

Hope things are fine with you.

I thought I'd give you a bit of an up date from down under. Over the past month we have had two meetings with A___'s school principle, the school counsellor and her teacher, and things have been fairly positive from a school point of view. The principle is a great guy and was very keen to know what we were dealing with at home as the problems at school are less intense. He asked me to email him the basic management principles of your e-book and said the school would do as much as they could to keep Anna on track. I now get a weekly report on her progress from her class teacher and they are now working out the classes for next year with a view to giving her the best teacher and appropriate classmates to minimise disputes. She got a little award at assembly the other day for "improved behavior in the classroom" so that was good.

We are so grateful for the chance your program has given us and I feel so fortunate for having discovered you online!! We are still dealing with bad behavior at home but it is, as you forecast, a little less stressful and frequent.

Thanks Mark,

L.

Online Parent Support