Getting kids to listen crossing the street...

[AJ Dual]

Anyone know of any "Blood runs red on the highway" videos that would impress upon my three year old twins and four year old twins to freaking listen, hold hands, and walk across the street WHEN AND ONLY as directed by me?

I'm beyond caring if I traumatize them.  It won't be as bad as getting hit by a car because they darted out into the street to pick up a pebble they "just had to have" etc. And generally it takes D.I.-quality screaming/threats of a level that would risk getting the police/CPS called on me if I did it in public to get through their little one-track minds that maybe daddy's trying to tell them something, and that stopping, and turning around and coming back might be a good idea.

All I can find so far is third world traffic cam footage, or staged stunts or stupid skater kids who had it coming...

[yesitsloaded]

Run over a watermelon in front of them. Put a face on it. Explain.

[AJ Dual]

Unfortunately, I have a zero-length driveway. Just big enough for a car, and no safe clearance on either side for them to stand and watch.

Plus, doing that demonstration would necessitate that they behave and stand still on the sidewalk. Something they're incapable of, hence my original problem. 

[crt360]

Drive around until you find some fresh roadkill with lots of blood, stink and flies.  Let them soak it in.  Explain to them how Bambi (or whatever animal you happen to find) wasn't careful and won't ever get to play with its friends again.

[AJ Dual]

Drive around until you find some fresh roadkill with lots of blood, stink and flies.  Let them soak it in.  Explain to them how Bambi (or whatever animal you happen to find) wasn't careful and won't ever get to play with its friends again.

Better...

[Fjolnirsson]

3-4 was a very difficult age for my daughter, for the very reasons you are describing. They have little to no impulse control. My solution was the 1,2,3 rule. If what I ask her to do is not in process by the time I reach 3, a spanking ensues. I rarely get beyond 1 now. Took about two weeks of absolute steadfast enforcement on my part before she got it.  My wife didn't like it, and neither did I, truthfully. But she listens. And she doesn't cross the street without looking both ways and holding a hand.

And I second the roadkill idea.

[AJ Dual]

We do the 1-2-3 rule too.

Although when they've really got me hacked off, I start randomly spanking on "2" or "3" so they get moving by "1"...

However, it's hard to do that in public. Or do the D.I. scream that actually gets them moving.

[Antibubba]

At that age you're better off leashing them.  Seriously.

[gunsmith]

At that age you're better off leashing them.  Seriously.

I agree, I also do not think spanking is all that productive.
http://www.alice-miller.com/flyers_en.php?page=2

[freakazoid]

http://www.alice-miller.com/flyers_en.php?page=2

(Children who have never been beaten are less interested in cruel films, and, as adults, will not produce horror shows).

 

Because of obedience to violence as a child, by readiness to obey any authority which recalls the authority of the parents, as the Germans obeyed Hitler, the Russians Stalin, the Serbs Milosevic.

Yeah, all of WW2 was because those Germans spanked there children. 

[The Annoyed Man]

I'll pass another vote for the leashes. Although I've never had a child fail to stop at a properly delivered "AND HALT!" when they reach the road...

[Jamisjockey]

I wish I could offer help....my kids never ran for the street like that.
I started teaching spawn #1 about street crossing and being safe in parking lots this year (5 in Oct)....#2 has been paying attention (just turned 3). 
Work the hardest on the 4 year olds.  At thier age, they should be able to listen.  The 3 year olds are harder to train.

[roo_ster]

http://www.alice-miller.com/flyers_en.php?page=2

(Children who have never been beaten are less interested in cruel films, and, as adults, will not produce horror shows).

 

Because of obedience to violence as a child, by readiness to obey any authority which recalls the authority of the parents, as the Germans obeyed Hitler, the Russians Stalin, the Serbs Milosevic.

Yeah, all of WW2 was because those Germans spanked there children. 

 

[colonel_klink]I can see how this misconception came about.  Obviously, too many viewings of that propaganda film, "Casablanca."[/colonel_klink]

Renault:  Oh, laugh if you will, but I happen to be familiar with your record.  Let me point out just two items. In 1935 you ran guns to Ethiopia.  In 1936, you fought in Spain on the Loyalist side.

Rick: And got well paid for it on both occasions.

Renault: The winning side would have paid you much better.

Rick: Maybe.  Well, it seems you are determined to keep Lazlo here.

Renault: I have my orders.

Rick: Oh, I see.  Gestapo spank.

[Renault stands up]

Renault: My dear Ricky, you overestimate the influence of the Gestapo.  I don;t interfere with htem and they don't interfere with me.  In Casablanca I am master of my fate.  I am captain of my --

[He stops short as his aide enters]

Aide: --Major Strasser is here, sir.

[Renault starts to leave.]

Rick: Yeah, you were saying?

Is it a good or bad thing that I can recall likely 80% of Casablanca without looking it up?  I did so fo rthe above, 'cause I wasn't sure if it was "Nazi spank" or "Gestapo spank."

[Mabs2]

I don't have kids.

PROBLEM SOLVED

[Grandpa Shooter]

My brother used to stand on the side of the road and give a physics lecture to his son about mass vs inertia and the subsequent result on the human body, which was not designed properly to absorb such a high level impact.



My Mother would stand there and say,  "For Christ's sake get that kid out of the road, you are going to talk him to death!"




Of course my brother believes Clinton was the best President we ever had too.

[Parker Dean]

I don't think you can scare a kid into not running into the street. IMO it's a combination of low impulse control and narrow focus. I you ask a child about running into the street they'll answer to the effect that it's a No. At the same time if they see a shiny object they'll forget everything but the shiny object. That means they'll forget the scare tactic too.

A friend  of mine told his then three year old that a discolored patch in a parking lot was where another child was run over and killed in a similar attempt to impress the boy into not running off in parking lots. He's nine now and still remembers that because he looked for that patch the other day when we were there. Did it work? No. Even today he's not completely trustable if you're horsing around with him, although he is reasonably OK if calm. Up to about seven it was an even bet that he would run off toward the place we were going when we got out of the car.

[MechAg94]

Spanking is productive and it works.  It requires firmness, consistency, and length lecture/explanation if necessary.  Kids cognitive skills aren't so great at those ages and I imagine complicated cause/effect explanations don't work so well.  Do what I say or get spanking is simple.  I am sure there are some child development books that can tell you what level of thought you can expect at different ages.

[coppertales]

Don't have kids either but my cat comes when called.......Sounds like a good case of "like twins, like daddy".......chris3

[AJ Dual]

Don't have kids either but my cat comes when called.......Sounds like a good case of "like twins, like daddy".......chris3

I wish. It's their mother. I was a pretty calm kid.  And when I was naughty, I was deliberate, careful, and sneaky. Mostly involving playing Ted Kazinsky/Mad Scientist with household chemicals, air-rifles, and misuse of model rocket engines.

I did have to explain myself when at age 13, I faild to consider that my attempt at a 6 foot long coil-gun would not work because it did not have an appropriate load in the circuit (well, any load... really), and I blew the mains for the house. My father did think the DIY carbon-arc furnace I made out of a terra-cotta flowerpot, curtian rod, and carbon sticks pulled from old batteries was impressive. Well, at least until I plugged it in, and he discovered that I had decided to substitute a household chandiler/lighting rheostat for the lead sinker and salt-water in a pyrex dish that the old 1950's "Science for boys" book had instructed. And once again, blew the mains...

Fortunately, they never did learn of the napalm. In a fit of inspiration I dragged the old Weber grill over the stain/burn on the patio, and my parents assumed that grease, or some plastic cooking implement had been forgotten in there after the last cookout. Phew. 

OTOH, Mrs. Dual, went missing for the better part of the day at age two. The neighbors and local constabulary got involved, only to discover they faild to look up. She was on top of the kitchen refridgerator, nude, and covered in the dirt/mud from the houseplant she'd been eating while quietly enjoying all the commotion.

In all reality, it's a group dynamic problem. Mrs. Dual and I work nearly opposite shifts. They're horrible when it's 4-on-1. They're about average, behavior-wise, when we're both with them, or only have two with one of us. And their behavior is impeccable on the all too rare occasions we have them one-on-one.

[roo_ster]

I was a cheery terror as a child, happily unscrewing electrical outlets and such.

One of my more humorous & terror-inducing exploits occurred at age two:
At ~0700 Saturday, a neighbor calls the house, wakes my folks up, and my parents if they know where their son (myself--jfruser) is. 

Turns out, I had climbed out of the crib, went down the stairs over the child gate to the kitchen and picked up one of my bottles.

Then, I went to the front door, unlocked the dead bolt, and walked down to the end of the street to a favored neighbor lady's house. 

I rang the doorbell and asked her to fill my bottle with milk.

Dad then installed a double-cylinder dead bolt on the door...up high  Nobody got in...or out without a key.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

when i was 2 we lived on wake island. mom put me down for nap. out the window i went  ended up in o club bar watching weather balloons go up and drinking milk

[Scout26]

My mother is amazed that I survived until adulthood.  I spent the better part of an afternoon at age 4 or 5 talking with and shaking hands with the mannequins in the front window of a local department store after giving my mother the slip.  There is still a roughly 10x10 foot section of my parents backyard that will not grow any plant life because of my gasoline/naplam experiments.  The chemistry set one of my older brothers got me for my birthday was confiscated (and never seen again) after almost burning a hole through the dining room table with acid and then causing a small explosion in the kitchen.  I ruined more radios and other electric/electronic gizmos trying to fix them after I got a 100 in 1 Radio Shack electricty/electronics kit.  And I'll never forget the look on my mothers face when she walked into the bathroom when I was like 10 or 11 and was digging several BB's out of my legs from when the neighborhood kids would go into the back woods and have BB gun wars (we did atleast wear those old lab gogles).

I did spend an evening in the emergency room with my daughter when she was 3, after separating her shoulder when I grabbed her arm to pull her back as she took off to go run into the street.  I just sat there and waited for DCFS to showup.  The best part was when the x-ray tech poped back in when he was trying to get her arm into the right position for x-rays.  She had been sobbing since it had happened and then on the x-ray table. *POP*  The crying stops, off go the tears and she's back to being happy-go-lucky.   

[gunsmith]

http://www.alice-miller.com/flyers_en.php?page=2

(Children who have never been beaten are less interested in cruel films, and, as adults, will not produce horror shows).

 

Because of obedience to violence as a child, by readiness to obey any authority which recalls the authority of the parents, as the Germans obeyed Hitler, the Russians Stalin, the Serbs Milosevic.

Yeah, all of WW2 was because those Germans spanked there children. 

Funny you should mention that, she devoted a chapter of her book "For Your Own Good" to a study of Hitler's youth.
Don't criticize until you have at least read some of her books.
She is an excellent writer and even if you don't agree with her conclusions, its a compelling book.

Yeah, all of WW2 was because those Germans spanked there their  children

The Germans allowed genocide, why would a country allow that? Some kind of worldview was common to German citizens to allow
that to happen, don't be so quick to dismiss it.....

[Nitrogen]

The one time I did it, my dad beat the tar out of me.

Pity that's frowned upon these days.

[Matthew Carberry]

The one time I did it, my dad beat the tar out of me.

Pity that's frowned upon these days.

Better than the traffic beating you into the tar.