Does anyone else get tired of constantly nagging their children to do their chores or abide by the simple household rules that have been in place for years? I am a big fan of any discipline system that gets my kids to do what and behave how they are supposed to without me getting “emotional” (our polite term at home for when mommy becomes a ranting lunatic). In our house, this system is the Consequence Jar. It’s one of my favorite (and most popular) parenting tips.
Imagine my delight when I stumbled upon the “uh oh” jar on Pinterest. Unfortunately, the original link only led to a photo. I had to do some digging around (thank you Google) to find the original source to gather all the details. Sadly, that website is no longer active so you’ll have to settle for my version.
Basically, it’s a jar of consequences for your children in the event they break a household rule. No yelling, no idle threats. You simply have the child choose a slip of paper at random and whatever the paper says becomes their consequence. You can throw in a couple of freebies so they enjoy getting away with something every once in a while.
For your convenience, I have created several consequences that you can print off and use. I have also included two pages of blank ones so you can create your own. Of course you could also just cut a piece of paper into squares and save some ink, but if you are OCD like me, you will want the lines to cut along (see, I understand crazy).
Oh, and if you’re one of those super crafty and creative moms, you can go crazy decorating your jar. It’s not my strong suit so I was limited to what I could do with stickers. I thought the hearts would express to my children that even though they make mistakes and have to face consequences, I love them very much. They got from the hearts, “I love to punish you.”
Since my original writing of this post, I received some feedback from other parents who prefer positive reinforcement. I created a Reward Jar with free printable rewards in response to their comments. Please continue to share your feedback and concerns so I can help, if I’m able.
Corinne Schmitt
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I think this is a great idea. Leave it to kids to think you are saying you love to punish them!
As a parent educator, I can tell you that this is a wonderful parenting tool. I use something similar in my family.
I found this on Pinterest, and love this idea!! My daughter just turned 3 and is constantly testing her boundaries. This is on my to-do list!
This is such a great idea. My kids are a little young for it but I definitely like this idea for when they are older.
I just ran across this on Pinterest! I’m adding a few fun things too; like walk backwards everywhere for the next 30 minutes, make a sock puppet, do the cha-cha slide, play hide and seek. Thanks!! 🙂
I love your ideas, especially the one to walk backwards everywhere for the next 30 minutes. Hilarious! Thanks for stopping by and sharing them! 🙂
Just be careful your not reinforcing negative behavior; ie:it becomes fun to misbehave so you can pick a slip of paper….then you get to play hide and seek. 🙂
True! Some of the consequences were a little too fun for my kids so they actually looked forward to getting to pull one from the jar.
Thank you a million times! It is hard to find actual examples of consequences. I appreciate your great examples! You also insert humor into it (“your name is ‘Bob’ for the rest of the day”), which I love and it’s a wonderful technique. Thanks!
Thank you Mary! I’m glad you found them helpful. Not everyone appreciates my humor so I’m always happy when someone gets me. 🙂 Even if you don’t like all of the consequences, hopefully they’ll give you some ideas for your own.
I LOVE the jar ideas….putting them to use today 🙂
Thank you so much!