Responsible Kids Through Simple Solutions

My kid, age 8, keeps forgetting to wear his belt to school. Each time he forgets, he receives a demerit. (How very Catholic school does that sound? It makes me giggle every time.) Five demerits means a detention. (Back in my school days, I would have gotten detention for carrying my school supplies with these blue nails! That makes me giggle, too.)

As a mom, I support the detention. In fact, I kind of hope that he earns one because then he'll learn a good lesson about remembering his stuff.

But, honestly, as a person, I am going to be so annoyed if he gets a detention, as we live out of town from the school and detention occurs at some ridiculously early hour. I don't want to get up early! It's not like I was the naughty one! Not enough coffee in the world...

I had the option, of course, of adding "belt" to my daily checklist of things to carry with me in the morning, right under water bottles and snacks.

But then I would be remembering the belt and he would learn nothing!

Instead, he has a new rule. When he takes off his shoes (the prompt), he also takes off his belt (the action) and stores it in the shoes (the physical reminder) so that he cannot miss it in the morning. If he forgets to put the belt in the shoes, I can punish him early - before he gets a demerit and before I get a date with the evil sunrise. So far, so good.

This could work for you, too. Take something you already do (the prompt), relate it to an action, and leave a physical reminder.

In the morning, when I make coffee, I also look over my planner. I keep the planner, overnight, in the spot where I always sip coffee.

At night, when I plug in my phone, I take my meds, stored right by the plug.

And have your kids do the same. Maybe it's taking meds when brushing teeth or setting the alarm clock when they pick up their book to read at night.

Prompt. Action. Physical reminder.

It works.

Etcetera.