For better or for worse, whining isnt either a manipulation or a plea for tender loving care.
Instead, whining is sometimes a power play and sometimes a legitimate request for emotional support.
It requires us to listen to each whine and think about the context.
This listening is hard.
We dont always have these things.
We dont always have these things.
It feels too hard to talk like a big girl right now.
Weve all been there.
That is, you ask them to repeat their request in a more polite, sans-whiny way.
If you give in, theyll just whine harder and louder and longer next time.
Can you take a deep breath and take another crack, so I can understand?
Kids love themselves some positive reinforcement.
If they think theyre going to get that juiceanda compliment, thats extra motivation to tone down the whine.
Any after that would cost him a quarter.
(Kristin)
You know what worked eventually?
I whined right back.
They did not like it.
(Kristine)
Videotape them and then show them how they sound.
(Shari)
I speak a different language to them.
Sometimes its gibberish, sometimes its a misremembered snatch of a language learned in school, whatever.
When they stop all confused and ask why Im talking funny, I ask whytheyretalking funny.
It works at least half the time.
(Rhiannon)
I break the cycle of whining by getting my daughter to laugh.
Could be a funny voice, an absurd question, or a weird dance.
(Bailey)
I tell my kids whining breaks the television.
(Katie)
Final word goes to group member Chris: Wait two years.
