Natural consequences

I've been a little obsessed with the Love & Logic parenting philosophy ever since I discovered it a couple years ago. Our library in Vernal earned a grant to offer the course FREE (which is amazing - it's an expensive program!) Brian and I attended it for a few months when Brianna was a newborn. Our specific course was actually the "Early Learning" program - aimed mostly at toddlers. I won't begin to get into a summary of all we learned... the program is just too loaded with amazing techniques and theories. 

But one of the main take-home messages I remembered and am trying to apply is to allow my children to experience natural consequences of poor decisions. I want to be able to trust my kids to learn to make the right decisions in their life and build them into successful adults by letting them feel the consequences of their choices. I don't want to be a  "helicopter parent" (i.e., the type that hovers about their children trying to make sure that everything in life is going right for them). That's Brian's tendency. But we want to work towards being what the program terms "Consultant Parents" - providing guidance and consultant services for children, offering messages of personal worth and strength, leading by example, not nagging or being a "drill sergeant" or making excuses, but parenting using equal parts empathy with consequences to provide optimum learning from mistakes.

Sermon over. 
Exhibit A: 

Brianna and her cousin Alli jumping on the bed at their Grandparent's condo. Brianna knows she's not supposed to jump on beds because she might get hurt. But I let her figure that out for herself.

And she did: 

I gave Brianna and Alli big hugs and reminded them that this is what happens when they jump on beds. They stopped jumping on the beds.