Backseat Discipline

I get in my car, everyone is strapped in, I turn on some music.  I breathe a naive and premature sigh of relief.  Everything is under control, right?  HA!  You would think that having each child strapped into a seat would be a good thing.  Less mobility = less chance to get into trouble, right?  Ah, but they still have lungs and their bodies are amazingly flexible.

I try to focus on driving while the backseat is full of screaming, crying, "touching," "kicking," and "bothering."  It requires a great deal of patience and calmness.  I often lack both.  I feel like the limbless Black Night from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, barking out threats with no ability to carry them out:  "Come back here and take what's coming to you! I'll bite your legs off!" 

I have come to realize that despite my children's confining carseats, they have ME in a bind, instead of the other way around.  So I was considering ways to make it better....

Things that DON'T work:

1.  Time outs.  (Um, they are already strapped in and seated).

2. Threats of future Time Outs.  (Too easily forgotten...and THEY remember that you forgot). 

3.  "I'm going to stop this car RIGHT NOW and wait until you are QUIET before we continue!" (But THEY don't care if you are late to the doctor's appointment, expensive swimming lessons, or school.  You DO.  They know this.)

4.  Removing the child from the situation.  (Once again, not possible).

5.  Separating the offending parties.  (Carseats are SO easy to move around).

6.  Duct Tape. ( I'm pretty sure you would get in big trouble).

7.  Screaming.  (It feels kinda good at first...not so much later.  And it doesn't work, just adds to the overall car volume).

8.  Bribery. (It works for a few seconds/minutes, and then they forget, and then you remind them of the reward...few moments of silence...they forget...you remind them of the reward...they forget....  Yeah, it doesn't work.)

9.  Ignore them.  (The "Mommy Mommy Mommy's" get louder, louder, LOUDER until they are at a  ridiculous decibel.  Everyone is screaming.  The car is one huge load of lung power).  I turn up the music.  (They scream louder). 

10. Take away their toys.  (Now they are even more bored and more likely to annoy each other.)

11.  Reasoning with them. (They are 2, 4, and 6).


Things that DO work:







yeah, I got nothin'.