Description

From the product page at http://www.123magic.com/All-Products/Parents-of-Kids-2-12This best-selling program, featuring Dr. Phelan’s entertaining seminar presentation and real-life family vignettes, provides easy-to-learn techniques for managing difficult behavior.Addressing the task of disciplining children without arguing, yelling, or spanking, this program offers easy-to-follow steps to manage troublesome behavior with patience and compassion.Customer Reviews:By Preacher Girl”I can’t say enough about this program. It works. It really, really works. I have four children ages 14 months to 7 1/2 years. It was our third child that brought us to our knees. He started the “terrible twos” at one and a half and didn’t stop for two years until we started this program. A month before I found out about 123 Magic I told my husband, “we have to figure out how to parent/discipline this child because if we don’t, he is the kind who can destroy a family and it won’t be his fault (he’s too young), it will be ours because we never figured out how to discipline him”. We love our son very much but we had stopped enjoying him. Some days I was facing five terrible tantrums before lunch. And when I say tantrums, I mean he was getting himself so worked up that he would sometimes vomit all over himself. One therapist told us to do a “rescue hug” on him. Well, we did rescue hugs, sometimes for 45 minutes to almost no avail. It also wasn’t realistic. I have three other children and I can’t be doing a “rescue hug” for hours each day on just one child. I was in despair as to what to do when a counselor told me about 123 Magic. She told me that it would be easy to implement and that it would work. She was right. We have a different home and people who knew the before and after have been amazed.In the video Dr. Phelan continually stresses that the two main keys to this program are 1)don’t use too much emotion and 2)don’t use too many words. When you watch the video it will make sense. He goes on to say that parents come up to him at conferences and will say that the program worked great for about six weeks and then quit working. He instructs that the program still works, it is just that the parents have gone back to using too much emotion and/or too many words. We found this to be entirely true. When a parent is used to nagging, lecturing, and yelling, it can be a hard habit to break. My husband and I did really well for the first six weeks or so and then somehow forgot these two main principles. Sure enough, the kids (especially the third-born) started acting worse. We have gotten back on track and it is working again. The goal as the months and years go by is that the children learn to internally monitor themselves.In the video Dr. Phelan warns that about half of the kids will immediately comply with the program and about half will immediately test it. We figured that our third-born would immediately test and he did. We took courage, though, that in about ten days he would be through that. In fact, it probably took only about five. He is a much happier child now and we are a much happier family. If you have given up hope of finding a program that works, try this one. The beauty of it is that it works for ages 2-12 and all personality types. You don’t have to figure out a different discipline for each child’s age and personality.Along with this video I bought the kids version of the book. I highly recommend to do that as well. We read the book to our three older kids and they were fascinated. And even though they still fight it sometimes, they really like the program because I’m not yelling or nagging much at all anymore. A few weeks ago my seven-year old and I were in a restaurant together. She saw a child acting up and she quietly said to me, “they should use 123 Magic.” I asked her if she liked 123 Magic and why. She said, “because it gets kids to obey.””By danken2423″This video is an excellent accompaniment/alternative to the book which is authored by Dr Phelan.What you get on the video is a down to Earth explanation of the 1-2-3 Magic system, and a deeper understanding of the warmth and humour of Dr Phelan, who comes across as an excellent presenter.Its a very easy ~90min video to watch ideally with your partner.Having already read the book, it made the video easier to absorb, and my partner and I have redoubled our efforts to employ the system. As with every other parent, we find it works well, and are lucky enough to have instant compliance from our kids. Particularly the older one, who likes to show off to the younger one that she understands the rules.I would recommend this video heartily, but would also recommend that the more 1-2-3 magic video is additionally obtained. 1-2-3 Magic is all about “stop” behaviours (stop hitting, whining, teasing, badgering, talking back etc.) More 1-2-3 magic is all about “start” behaviours (tidy your room, get ready to go to school, eat your dinner). All parents (referred to as “wild animal trainers” through the video) will recognise their own desire to get kids moving, as well as getting kids to stop, so the videos are a complimentary set. Both my partner and I have tried the “stop” tools in 1-2-3 magic as “start”ers, and this has proven to be confusing for everyone, and singularly unsuccessful !!Both videos are easily worth $200, for the sanity that they can restore to any chaotic family home, if the tools are understood and used properly.”