A common question I get asked is "How do I get my kid to 'want' to go to...?" This could be anything from going to martial arts practice, football practice, dance, or whatever it is your kids do.

(source: forevermom.com)

But before we get into the super secret ninja trick (which is ridiculously simple), lets look at what's really going on here. It's not necessarily that your kid doesn't want to go to martial arts or dance or whatever, it's that they don't want to stop doing what they're currently doing.

What do your kids do when they get home from school? Typical answers are eat, play with friends, play on the ipod/xbox/phone, watch TV. Things that will help them de-stress from school. And that's totally fine. But asking them to stop having fun to go do something else is where the difficulty is.

So here's the solution:

30 minutes before you need to leave for the activity, make your child do something they don't like doing. Cleaning their room, raking the leaves, taking out the garbage. Have them doing something unpleasant. Then when it's time to go, see their face light up with excitement when they get to stop doing the unpleasant thing to go do something that they enjoy!

Hi, I'm Forest

I teach people how to kick ass for a living. You can read my story and verification post here.