Book: 1-2-3 Magic. Effective Discipline for Children 2-12

Disclaimer: My 'book reviews' are very subjective as it depends on whether the book is relevant to my family. Neither will I be doing any summary as I believe it's the details that make the book useful/helpful.

Borrowed this book from the library after another mummy recommended it. When I first heard of this 1-2-3 method, I thought, 'Why need to give three chances? Wouldn't that be teaching the child that he could get away with being naughty two times before he got punished? What if he hit someone, wait for him to hit two more times before taking action??'

But once I read the book, I realised one shall not judge a book by its cover.. without reading it! :P In fact, even when I was reading the Introduction, I felt like ditching the book - it sounded too much like a salesperson making a hard sell! Fortunately, I persevered : )

So, what if the child hits someone? No need to wait for two more times! For 'offences' deemed serious enough, the parent can go to '3' straight away and impose a punishment (such as time-out). The book also gives examples of many other disciplinary situations. Best of all, it's funny and a good read, not draggy at all. Given the scope it covers, I am amazed it's a very manageable 212 pages.

The 1-2-3 method seems like it will be a good add-on to my current disciplinary method, i.e. time-out. But I only want to use time-out for major problems like hitting, instead of sending him off to time-out for every little thing. Using 1-2-3, it means that three 'small' misbehaviours equate one 'big' misbehaviour.. sorta makes sense to me.

Other things in the book which make sense to me and make me agree and want to try:
1) No Talking. No Emotion.
me: emotion and 'discussion' often escalate to anger and frustration, resulting in a 'parental tantrum'. I fully agree that there's no point in talking too much to a unhappy young child, which we do only because we assume a child is a 'little adult' (elaborated in the book).

2) Different methods for stopping obnoxious behavior and encouraging good behavior. Also talks about the importance of strengthening parent-child relationship.

Good book!