Motivating Your 'Green' Child
Greens can be hard to motivate. The more we as moms try to micromanage them, the more they dig their heels into the ground and their stubborn streak comes out. As my kids were growing up here are a few things that helped me motivate my loveable (and sometimes lazy) greens.
Give them one task at a time. Telling a Green, “go clean your room,” is completely overwhelming for their personality. Instead, try saying, “go put away the clean clothes in your room.” A direct task is much more manageable for them. If you have several things they need to do, you can give them the next thing once their first task has been completed.
Give them space. Once you’ve asked a Green to do something, don’t hover over them. They can sense your displeasure and that makes them shut down even more.
Give them praise and encouragement. Greens want to please you, so be sure to let them know when they have done something well.
Be gentle. Greens cannot stand conflict or confrontation so when you speak to them, keep a gentle voice, and don’t come AT them because they will shut down. Approach them gently, like you would a butterfly.
We talk about the 4 temperament colors all the time at Birds on a Wire, so if you’re not sure what I’m talking about, take the Personality Colors quiz or watch my lesson, 'Being a Student of Your Child' from the Mom Core curriculum.
You can find more BOAW blog posts and podcast episodes that are temperament related HERE.