Simple Solutions -Towels and Tantrums

Maybe having towels hanging from your oven door is way old fashioned or something but I've got em.  They are super handy right here for drying hands after washing dishes or in between food prep steps as well has the perfect height for Small Fry to dry her hands.  They are also perfect for my two darling daughters to pull down everyday and drag to unknown parts of the house.  I found myself getting frustrated because I would go to grab a towel and it was either on the floor or in some toy bin.  Plus as I cooked they were always getting pulled off.  It's small stuff I know but it was driving me crazy.  So I came up with this:

This is my before:

 Now I used 3 new dish towels (though they don't have to be new), a piece of ribbon (3 inches for each towel) and a package of shower curtain hooks (got mine for a $1.00 but there are lots of cute ones out there).

 I cut my piece of ribbon and folded a 1/4 inch under on each side.

 I found the center of my towel (it was easy on new ones cause they still had the crease mark in them) and pinned my ribbon.  Then I sewed over the ends of the ribbon.  This creates a little loop hook.

Put 3 (or more or less if you like) hooks on your oven door handle, open them, thread on the loop, lock em closed and problem solved.  I was worried they would become a pulling toy and risk pulling the door open (which some of you may have kids that can do this so beware) but actually my little pumpkin pulled on them the first time and realized they weren't coming off so now she likes to just slide them back and forth.  Everyone is happy!!!  I took an extra 10 minutes and added hooks to my already existing towels and we are set!!

Cautionary note:  Just remember if you have kids that are climbers, grabbers, pullers or really strong for their age they could use these to pull on your oven door-so beware.  This isn't a project suited for household.

 Now for my simple solution to tantrums (p.s. this has not eliminated tantrums from my house-only helped cool some of them in the heat of the moment).  In February we were getting ready to go to the State basketball tournament.  We had told Small Fry if she was good she could ride on the bus with daddy.  The tournament was 2 days away.  Every time she started having a melt down or attitude we would say, "Do we need to take away your chance to ride the bus?"  I felt like it was really hard to distinguish when she had gone over the line or when we needed to give her another chance (I mean she is only 2).  So I quickly whipped up this smiley face chart.  I found a picture of a bus and laminated it and stuck it to the bottom, then I put up two rows of smiley faces.  I told Small Fry that if she lost all of her smiles she would also lose the bus.  This became really effective because as she was acting up or melting down I would give her a warning and say, "do you want to lose a smile?"  Sometimes she would stop and sometimes she would continue-in which case I would take off a smile.  What worked so well is that she could visually see how many smiles she had left and actually she was devistated when she lost her first smile. 

I have continued using this chart and have made various pictures to put on the bottom.  I have park, tv, ice cream, a bike ride, a ride in dads sidekick, bake cookies, library and trampoline.  She gets to choose what she would like to do if she doesn't lose all her smiles.  I like this because there are always those times in parenthood that are unclear whether they warrant a time out or if you should just ignore them or what.  I still use time out for major offenses like kicking, hitting, major tantrums but this is perfect for things like not listening to instructions, not sharing, not getting her coat on when asked for the 4th time.  You know how it is when you are trying to get out the door quickly-there isn't always time to stop for time out but a warning that a smile will be gone can help get things back on track.  When all the smiles are gone she can try again the next day.  If she keeps her smiles and we do the thing at noon or something then I let her choose another reward for the afternoon.  It has been really helpful in our house (and helpful for me especially since I no longer have to give warning after warning and chance after chance).