Burpee parenting

I may have accidentally discovered the ultimate parenting hack: burpees.

Let me explain.

It all started when our firstborn was around 3-4 years old. That's when he first started resisting. Pushing the boundaries, testing where they really are.

I struggled to keep the line for a while. Credit to him though, he is one fine negotiator.

I wanted to be patient, understand where he's coming from. But at the same time we wanted to raise a man. Me and my wife knew that that cannot be done without discipline.

One has to learn how to follow the rules, before learning which ones to break.

I didn't feel like I had the tools though.

I mean, seriously — what were my options? Yell? Hate it. Timeout? Never made sense to me. Threaten no screen time? He'll forget it by dinner. Spanking? Hard pass, unless we’re talking life-or-death level stuff.

I wanted something that was

• physical - there's something about the physical pain that makes you remember
• portable - you can use it anywhere
• scalable - the more you misbehave, the more the punishment
• actually good for him - in a way where he'll understand I always want the best for him.

One evening, after a workout in our garage, I got in and told my wife.

"I think I figured it out."

I felt like Tony Stark when he told Potts that he figured out time travel.

"Burpees!"

She was on-board, so I started applying it.

He would not behave at the dinner table - 5 burpees. He would hit his sister - 10 burpees. And so on and so forth.

At first he resisted. Cried through the 10 burpees - it took 5 minutes, but I stuck with it.

It's been a few months. By now he understands that his actions have consequences and in our house burpees became the currency. He would just put his head down and start doing them. I'm never unreasonable, he always gets at least 2-3 warnings.

An additional benefit is the burpees - being a hard exercise - also gets him out of his state. So when he's done, it's like snap, we start from a clean state.

Have you tried something like this? I’d love to hear about it — I’m always trading parenting tips with fellow warriors. And if you want to give it a shot, just one piece of advice: stick with it. The magic happens after those first few tough weeks.