Our 8 year daughter was lying

Dear Mr. Swanson:

When I purchased your book online, the main problem we were experiencing with our 8 year daughter was lying. The day after reading your book I started on some graphs. She then earned points for her daily responsibilities which could be spent for purchasing privileges the next day. Since we were trying to curb her tendency to lie, we added a deduction category which would deduct enough points from her total to blow any chance of participating in “Family Fun Night” at the end of the week. It’s been 3 weeks now, and she’s earned all but one “Family Fun Night”. This is miraculous, as this has been a problem which has plagued us almost daily for the better part of a year.

When I saw how she responded to this new system, I went out of my way to make this as pleasurable for her as it is for me. For example: One morning she was about to take the last donut when she stopped and brought it to me wondering if I would like it instead. This is behavior quite out of the norm for her. I got silly and started jumping up and down yelling “Extra credit, two points, thinking of others before ourselves!” I made a point to let her know that she wouldn’t ALWAYS earn extra credit for doing the right thing, but that she would always earn my respect for it. This made a huge impact on her, as she’s been going out of her way for the whole family ever since.

Needless to say, our family has been much more peaceful as of late and genuinely enjoying each others company. This has made an incredible difference.

Thank you with all my heart.

Robin Marculis