Creativity expert, professor, father and former day care provider Rustin Wolfe writes a weekly MinnMoms parenting advice column that uses creative punishments to put a positive spin on negative behavior.

Here's one of his creative solutions:

GET UP AND GO

Question: The battles every morning with my son to get ready are no longer even a little bit cute. I have to ask him literally dozens of times before he'll do anything. How can I get him to get ready?

Behavior: Won't get ready.

Problem: Tardiness and parental sanity.

Solution: Measurement drives behavior.

Activity: Think about how ESPN highlights have changed professional sports; players sometimes seem to be more interested in the big play than the win. That's because it's the big play that gets them recognized. Positive feedback is a reward unto itself, and even negative feedback helps people stay on-task. When our eldest hit a span of lounging naked on his bedroom floor, my wife bought a poster board and some stickers she knew he'd like. Each morning he gets ready without us losing years off of our lives, he gets to select a sticker to add to his 'get-up-and-go'' chart. It was about three days before he showed up in our bedroom wearing clothes he had picked out himself, asking if he could have his sticker. He had known what he was supposed to do, but it took the structure of a fun feedback system to motivate him to do it.

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