If you have a child who consistently comes home late and punishment and time outs or being grounded don’t seem to change the behavior, stop what you’re doing.  It is not working!  Instead of arguing about it, put the units of concern on the child using natural consequences.  What are natural consequences?  So glad you asked.  They are responses related to the child’s behavior.  A child coming home late usually does so for these reasons:

·        The child is having so much fun, he or she forgets about the time.

·        The child knows the parents may be upset at first and ground him or her for a while, and then they get over it and allow him to visit his friends again.  To him or her, it’s no big deal.

·        The child doesn’t want to come because he ...   more »