No More Screaming... I Hope

"A SOFT answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger."
Proverbs 15:1

This is the scripture that my family is trying to put into practice this week. One thing that my house could do without is shouting. I'm ashamed to admit that the fault is probably mine and DH. We tend to shout when we get angry and upset and the kids have learned to do the same.

So, last Sunday, I called for an emergency family meeting. I introduced this scripture and asked the family if we would like to put it to the test. I said it would be like an experiment, to see how the home environment will be like when we turn down the volume of our voices and opt to use "soft answers". Well, not just soft in terms of volume but also soft in terms of gentleness. (If those families on "Nanny 911" can do it, so can we).

I noticed the nannies on "Nanny 911"like to use charts. So, me thots that a chart would be good for us too. So I drew up this simple chart and anyone who violated the "soft answer" rule would get a monster face. Oh, Mommy and Daddy is also included in this chart. Of course we need rewards to go along with this little program, but kids' and parents' rewards are different. The older 2 kids get 7 hrs/week computer time, younger boy will get 10 scoops of ice cream, daddy gets 10 hours of service from the rest of us and mommy... well, mommy is still undecided but it'll definitely be something to do with dessert. Rewards will be reduced for every 2 monster faces. For example, 2 monster faces will result in computer time reduced by 1 hr or 1 less scoop of ice cream.

So, is it working for us? Well, shouting sessions have definitely become less. Everybody is making an effort to change the way we talk to each other. We're not perfect but at least we're trying.

Anybody else up for this challenge?