Anti-nagging mission

I got so over the nagging in the morning to get Ella ready for school that this morning I made a firm decision not to ask anything more than once. But I did need a back-up plan because it would've ended in drama if I would've left her to her own devices.

So I used post-it notes!

After I reminded her just once of what she needed to do, I allowed enough time for her to do it and instead of repeating the request I drew and wrote the instruction on a post-it and stuck it on her dress (or her body before she got dressed which took her close to an hour I think). After that, if she wouldn't have completed the previous task, I wouldn't even verbally remind her of the next task, but I just kept adding post-its to her. I think the maximum she had stuck to her at one time was 4.

(She wasted valuable time colouring in and improving 2 of the post-its before she got dressed.)

We were still 20 minutes late, but oh boy, I felt a lot calmer after not hearing myself repeat every instruction 10 times until I started sounding desperate and angry! The 20 minutes were added as a penalty to her wake-up time and bedtime, ie she had to go to bed 20 mins earlier tonight in order to get up 20 minutes earlier in the morning. If she can prove that she can get ready in less time tomorrow, we'll move the bedtime and wake-up time back again.

Say NO to nagging!