When my husband and I made the decision to become parents, we didn't enter into it lightly. We considered what we as individuals had to offer our children on many levels. Were we emotionally stable enough to provide them with a good start in terms of their mental health? Was our marriage strong enough to handle outside distractions, less time together, and the stress of raising children? Were we monetarily stable enough to support them and offer them opportunities in life? I'd decided to sacrifice my career as a therapist to stay home with my children. That was the right decision for ME. And finally, we examined our reasons for wanting children very closely. We were as prepared as humanly possible to become parents.

When my daughter was born 10 years ago, I had no idea what people were talking about with needing parenting help. She was a shining angel, a bright star, just an easy child. I figured other parents just had to be doing something wrong to be having all of these child discipline problems. I certainly read parenting advice books, studies parenting tips and waited for her to become difficult. She'd hit two, after all. Where were the terrible twos? A little before her second birthday, my husband and I decided to add another child to our family. We got a little surprise: not only were we having number two, we were also having number three. After the initial shock, we were thrilled.

As my daughter grew during those nine months, I began to notice some, let's just say changes in my little angel. Now, she was still as cute as a button, but she'd become one feisty little girl. “Spunky” we liked to say. Her vocabulary was quite advanced, so she was able to talk back to us. Her knee-jerk response to everything was: “Won't do it.” She wouldn't help pick up her toys, get in the car, go to bed, stay in bed, you name it she wouldn't do it and she'd pump out choice words like: “you're mean!” I was quickly losing my patience. I scoured books for parenting tips, parenting advice, child discipline and any parenting help I could get. I did my best positive parenting, took a parenting class and talked to other parents. Then, the twins were born. Again, angels at first. And then they turned two and I had two more spunky, feisty little ones on my hands that wouldn't lift a finger.

When my oldest daughter began kindergarten, I volunteered in her classroom when I could. It was then I found a little tool that revolutionized my parenting. The teacher had this nifty little visual Learning Resources Time Tracker that seemed to be doing all the work for her. She'd set the timer for a specified amount of clean-up time, the timer would say “begin” and it would glow green for “go”. The kids were enthralled with this timer, they looked at it as if it were a race. They would scurry around that room cleaning, organizing, and throwing away trash. They occasionally glance at it to make sure it was still green. Then, it would turn yellow. Look out! They would go into lightening speed mode knowing time was running out. They WOULD NOT be beaten by the Time Tracker. Sure enough, by the time it turned red for “stop- time's out!” the classroom was spic and span. It was simply brilliant. I talked with the teacher about it during lunch and discovered it was an indispensable tool for her. Young children have very little concept of time, what 15 minutes means, for example. So, a regular timer wasn't of much use. She used it for her time outs in the classroom as well. This way the children were privy to knowing approximately how much more time was left according to the colors. How brilliant, I thought. I raced home and ordered one online.

I began to think about all of my issues at home with my own children and was amazed by the plethora of ways I could utilize this Learning Resources Time Tracker. I began using it as a tool to get my children to do things which were anathema to them, like cleaning up. I explained how it worked, let them tinker with it a bit, did some test runs so they could see how it operates. Together we programmed it with the amount of time I deemed appropriate for them to clean their play room. Just like the kids in the classroom, there were little cleaning machines, and had a fun time doing it! Hallelujah! It's a great motivator for getting the chores done. We use it for caring for their pets, getting up on school days, going to bed, you name it. It's a wonderful tool for routines in the morning or evening. It can also help picky eaters at mealtimes- begin with very small portions and set the Time Tracker for 20 minutes.It also works well for kids homework- to get them going. It's fantastic for parents because it takes us out of the picture, it's kid against machine. I don't have to continually nag and prompt them and get in fights about chores anymore. You can give rewards if they “beat the timer” as you see fit.

Naturally, we also use them in our time outs. It's better for us and them when they have a defined, visual representation of their time out. They know we haven't forgotten about them sitting on the chair. They have a way to predict how much longer they have. We set the time for one minute per year of age. They are also portable, which is nice. We've been known to use them in the car. I find a SAFE place to pull the car over and set my Time Tracker. It's quite effective as it's a little on the dramatic side. I've found waiting to implement the time out until I get home has limited effectiveness.

I use it when I'm about to make a phone call. My kids drive me crazy when I'm on the phone. They seem to like to take advantage of the situation because when I'm on the phone, there's very little I can do to control their behavior. And, they don't like it when my attention is focused elsewhere. If I give them the heads up about an upcoming phone call, tell them I'm setting the Time Tracker fo30 minutes, I find they are more apt to leave me alone. They may still run into the room, but all I do is point to the Time Tracker and they back off.

Finally, I use it to spend one on one time with my kids. Simply telling the kids I'm playing a game with ONLY one of them hasn't worked well. If I tell them I'm going to be spending time with each of them individually for 20 minutes, set the Time Tracker, they have an easier time understanding the play time with the one is limited, and their turn is coming.

The Learning Resources Time Tracker is an indispensable parenting tool. People have asked me for parenting advice and this is definitely one of my top parenting tips. I've pondered why it works so well and have come to these conclusions. Anything that takes the parent out of the situation helps both parent and child. Plus, a timer, unlike a parent cannot be emotionally manipulated. There's no bargaining with the Time Tracker, no way to say it's being unfair or mean. The only response it gives is an automated one. If you're aving trouble with kids chores or kids homework, you will no longer be in a position of constant nagging and prompting. If you're raising children and having child discipline problems, I cannot recommend the Learning Resources Time Tracker enough!