Why parents avoid the easiest way to fix their kids’ crappy behavior

One time, an exasperated fellow parent was venting to me about how rude and defiant her kids were being.

She was a great, engaged mother, but she was running out of ideas.

I suggested that there was probably a fairly straightforward solution to her problem. I’d realized that there was one terrible influence in my kids’ life, one that consistently turned them into little monsters.

She took what I said to heart and tried it for a while.

The next time I saw her, she was flabbergasted at how well it worked.

I’d be willing to bet that, if you’re at your wits’ end with your kids’ behavior, you could apply this fix and start seeing massive changes right away.

The concept is not that difficult to grasp, but following through is.

An easy but difficult fix

What did I tell my fellow parent, based on my own experience with my kids?

You must ruthlessly cut your kids’ screen time — all the way to zero if need be.

The younger your kids are, the more ruthless you have to be.

This is extremely difficult to follow through on because:

• Your kids will be mad and make you the bad guy
• You’ll have to work a lot harder to keep them engaged with more productive and positive activities