Did You Want Some Cheese With Your Whine?

When it comes to getting things or asking questions, many children tend to whine, especially if they don’t get their way. And since whining is a learned behavior in children, if you give in to your child’s demands while they are whining, you are actually teaching them that whining is the way to go about solving problems, rather than communication and sometimes compromises. But the good news is that there are some tricks that you can use to help get the whining out of your children’s questions. Keep in mind the key to getting the whining out of the questions is to be consistent; that is also the only way that your child is going to learn to correct their bad behavior.

Here are some tricks to cut the whining out of the questions.

Trick one:
The most important trick that you will learn when it comes to getting the whining out of the questions is to tell your child that you can’t understand them when they whine. You can also tell them that when they whine your ears turn off, because it hurts your ears to hear them whine. If you keep this up they will eventually learn that if they want to ask you something they need to use a normal tone of voice.

Trick two:
Another good trick to help get the whining out of the question is to simply ignore them. You might have to read a book or sing a song at top volume, but don’t respond to them until they have asked you the question in a normal tone of voice. Even if you don’t say a word to your child, they are going to get the message that “if I am whining mom or dad won’t answer me, but if I do it in a normal tone of voice they will respond to me”.

Trick three:
If you have older children and are using a type of reward program with them, such as allowance or coupons for good behavior and accomplishing their choirs, you also need to have some sort of penalty for any bad behavior such as whining. If your older children start whining when they are asking for something you can charge them a coupon or a dollar amount each time they whine. The more they lose, the smaller there reward opportunity is going to be.

Trick four:
Another great trick is to use good communication and compromise with your children. Tell your children what you expect from them before you go out into public, and make sure you follow through on the consequences; good communication can actually go a long way in ensuring that your child behaves properly. But you don’t want to compromise with your child if they are whining; you should use compromising as some type of reward. For example, you are at the park playing, and you tell your child it is time to leave. They immediately start whining: “but can’t I have five more minutes?” You shouldn’t give them those extra five minutes. But if they use a normal tone of voice and ask if they could have five more minutes, you should praise your child for using a normal tone of voice and allow them to have those extra five minutes.

Just remember that giving in to your child every time that they whine is the wrong thing to do. If you want to stop your child from whining when they are asking questions, your best bet is to tell them that you can’t understand them when they whine, so if they want to ask you a question they need to do it in a normal tone of voice.