Polly Bath: When a child has bad behavior at school, then the consequences need to happen at school. It began there, it should end there.

It’s ok to inform the parents about what happened, but we should not expect the parent to consequence their kid based on what happened in school. We need to be the one to handle it.

The kid should be able to go home and have the parents be nurturing, but their parents should realize the situation was taken care of at school.

Consequences work best when they are timely, happening as close to the moment as possible, and in the environment where the situation took place. For example, if a child misbehaves in the grocery store, then their consequence might be that they have to hold their mother’s hand the rest of the time she is shopping. It happens there in the store.

When there is a delay in giving a consequence then kids are not going to remember everything that happened. Consequences are so much more powerful and effective when they’re given right off.

If a child were to get in trouble at school at 10 o’clock in the morning and they know they are going to get in trouble at home, then the rest of their school day is shot. And they miss all kinds of stuff, math, reading, etc.

So we need to explain this to parents. And help them realize that timing is everything when it comes to consequences.