Thursday, March 13, 2008

How I got my kid to stop picking his nose

Nose picking has been a problem for us for a long time. Anyone who knows Jacob knows this. I finally got fed up with it after telling Jacob to stop picking his nose about 50 times in a day. So, I decided that he needed a bribe. Jacob has always been very susceptible to bribes and rewards. He was the easiest kid to potty train. All I had to do was sing a song and give him two M&M's every time he went potty. It worked like a charm. I decided to bribe him with jelly beans this time. I put 20 jelly beans in a jar. I told him that every time I saw him picking his nose I would take a jelly bean out of the jar and at the end of the day he could eat what was left. I thought 20 would be good because he picked his nose a lot. The first day I had to take away one jelly bean and it was traumatic for him. I said, "Well, don't pick your nose and I won't take any more away." He said, "OK mommy, I won't pick my nose any more." And he didn't. He got to eat 19 jelly beans that night. The next day he didn't do as well. I ended up taking away a lot of jelly beans. But, he got better every day. It took less than a week to get down to where I only had to take away one or two jelly beans a day. The jelly beans are all gone (we all enjoyed them), and so is the nose picking, at least for now. We will see if we really broke the habit. Unfortunately he has developed a new habit. Now, his hand is always down his pants. I have to tell him several times a day to remove it. If it is not one thing it is another.

2 comments:

Kristin Sokol said...

You are a genius!

sophia said...

That's hilarious! Jacob is such a cutie... I'll have to keep these tricks in mind ;).