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Natural consequences are those things that happen in response to your child's behavior without parental involvement. These are imposed by nature, society, or another person. You do not actually deliver a natural consequence yourself. Instead, you allow nature or society to impose the consequence on your child by not interfering.

Child's Behavior	Natural Consequence
Stays up late and is late for school	She feels tired the next day, the teacher is angry and makes her stay after school.
Refuses to wear mittens	Her hands get cold.
Refuses to eat dinner	She feels hungry.
Smokes marijuana	She feels "high" and gains acceptance from peers. She may be suspended from school if caught.
Shoplifts clothes at store	She gets free clothes. She may be caught and arrested.
Plays with cigarette lighter	She burns her hand or possibly sets the house on fire.
Leaves toys out in the rain	The toys rust or are stolen.

Natural consequences are a very effective form of discipline. However, you can see from the examples above that natural consequences do not always deter behavior. Here are some examples of when natural consequences do not work:

• If you interfere with a natural consequence it will not work. For example, by fixing a later meal after your child refuses to eat dinner, you will stop the natural consequence of hunger. You are also encouraging the unacceptable behavior by responding with special attention. Similarly, by forcing your child to wear a coat, she will not experience the natural consequence ofbeing cold.
• Your child's misbehavior can be encouraged by a natural consequence. For instance, shoplifting without being caught results in free clothes.
• Something you see as unpleasant, like cold hands, may not matter to your children.
• The natural consequence may be too dangerous. Never allow the natural consequence to endanger the health and safety of your child. For example, playing with matches may lead to a fire.

Natural consequences only work if they are undesirable to your child and you do not interfere. Carefully choose the conditions when you allow natural consequences to occur and they will be very effective.

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Test Your Knowledge!

Choose a response to each situation below using natural consequences when appropriate. Click the letter next to the response you choose.

1. Situation: Victor leaves his tricycle outside.

A	You leave the tricycle outside and tell Victor, "If you leave your tricycle out it will rust or be stolen."

Yes, this is a natural consequence. It could be very effective if you are willing to allow the trike to rust or be stolen. If not, you might want to try a logical consequence instead.

B	You put the tricycle in the garage.

C	You tell Victor, "If you don't bring that tricycle in, I'm going to be very unhappy with you."

2. Situation: Gabriel refuses to wear a coat outside even though it is cold and rainy.

A	You say "Don't be ridiculous!" and put the coat on him.

B	You slap him and yell, "I'm tired of arguing with you over every little thing. Put that coat on now!"

C	You allow him to go outside without his coat.

3. Situation: Shantelle refuses to do her homework.

A	You send her to bed without dinner.

B	You don't interfere.

C	You say "Let me help you with that. It looks pretty hard, but I bet we can figure it out."

4. Situation: Seven year old Kim is using a sharp axe to build a "fort."

A	You let her continue.

B	You scream " Kim! Put that down immediately!" and spank her.

C	You scream "Kim! Put that down immediately!" then explain the danger and offer to help her find a safer way to build the fort.

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