Parents! What punishment have you dished out....

One Christmas my parents bought me a watch that I had begged for, I knew this cause I peeked. When my Dad went to get it out of it's hiding spot, the tape was un-done and he could tell I had peeked.
He never said a word, but on Christmas morning when I opened my gifts...the watch was not one of them. He asked me why I looked so disappointed, but I never owned up to it.
Exactly 6 months later June 25th is my birthday, want to guess what I got?? Yup, that watch, he never took it back like I thought, but it taught me a lesson about peeking and not owning up to my wicked deed!

Nice story.

That was hardly a "wicked" deed.

I try to teach my kids there are consequences for their actions. Basically if my child doesn't want to so something like put on their boots for example this happened the other day.....Emily has this thing with putting her boots on.....I took her outside in her barefeet in the snow to the van - well she didn't even make it to the van and ran back in the house....her tootsies were frozen and sore....anyhow we haven't had that problem since.

One day Emily refused to get dressed - this was when she was a big younger....anyhow off to daycare she went in her jammies....of course some of the kids laughed at her and that never happened again either....LOL

Oh poor baby! When my son was a baby he bit me and I did bite him back and that was the only time he did that.

Funny timing Dawn. Today at my kids' school it was pajama day!

I had to do the pajama thing with my 2 girls also. After the first time, they got dressed when asked!
My question is, what is it with teenagers and jackets? Why won't they wear them? Its just as cold outside for them as it is for me - and I'm not driving kids to the bus stop, it's not even 2 minutes walk! Argh.

Jackets aren't cool.

Sometimes I just think the younger ones need to know "why" you don't do certain things - especially the younger ones like mine. Emily learned her lesson when she snow froze her feet.

I also give my kids the common time out for not listening to intructions etc..... Or I will remove toys that they cherish for the remainder of the night.

Back in the 70's, my younger brother was selling pot out the back of his van in our driveway. My mom caught on, realizing that he had an awful lot of "friends" coming over, but only for a few minutes!

Well, my dad was an auxiliary cop (small town), and my aunt was the police dispatcher, so we knew all the cops. My mom had the cops come "arrest" my brother, which gave him the scare of his life! Stopped him selling, but not smoking!

OMG that is too funny!!!! Good lesson though! Too bad he didn't stop smoking the stuff...

I like the approach though. My cousin is 48 and still smoking! Talk about Cheech and Chong.

My cousins grew a large "mystery plant" in their dad's veggie garden back in the 70's. Of course, their mom and dad had NO idea what it was. When it had grown to a bushy 6 feet or so, one of the neighbors casually commented that they had a nice pot plant growing in back. After getting an explaintion of what "pot" was, my aunt ripped the thing out of the ground and tossed it into the trash. Needless to say, the boys were really disappointed!

I had a security guard give Lizzie a scare when she filched something out of a store when she was about 5. It had been the 2nd or 3rd time she'd decided she wanted something and just took it. The security guard was willing to "scare" her by saying she'd have to go the the jail with him unless she apologized and gave back the item. She did and she's not tried to ever take anything again (to my knowledge, anyway - she's 13)

Kids, such a learning experience .....

I stole a sticker book when I was about 5, and I felt so guilty that I hid it in my dresser and never used it!

Do you still have it??

no

DD went shopping w/her GF once and came home with $25-40 worth of stuff. She said it was her GF and she forgot them. About 2 hours later the GF showed up and stuffed everything into her backpac and went home. DD looked very guilty so on a hunch I told her I wasn't born yesterday and I asked her what she had stolen.
She pulled a toothbrush out from under her pillow and started bawling. I made her return it to the store with an apology but not before I made a phone call to her GF's Mother. She had a wee bit more than a toothbrush to return!

Good move!

2 things I have a big, big problem with..a thief and or liar. In my house the kids knew that if they did something wrong they had better own up to it. If they did they may get 2 weeks/2 months punishment depending on what they did. It they did it and lied about it...2 weeks just became 4 and 2 months, 4 months ect... No if's, ands, buts, about it!!!

I'm with you. And if they lie about stealing...

Certain Death! LOL

We've been hearing lately from lots of parents who have / had both sons and daughters, that the girls are much more of a problem (especially in the teenage years) than the boys. Any of you guys want to give your opinion on that?

My son was no problem, I have no daughters.

Keeping fingers crossed, hoping it's true.

I know that i was beastly to my own mother. She warned me that I was to get my just desserts from my own daughters - so far she has been right!

Child #1 (F) Never slept over people's house,no partying, read books all the time. Good student, active in school activities debates, ect....Extremely good in Business, went to Thomas College and has an awesome job, nice family.
Child # 2 (F) Wild child!! Liked night life better than school, no interest in school activities unless it was a party with school buds. Very independent, still not married, chose to be a single Mother verse's getting married cause she was pregnant. Has CNA license,Ed Tech 1,and Behavior Specialist License, plans to go back to school and further herself.

Child # 3 (M) cant count as he is a special needs child.

Child # 4 (F) Liked school, was Head Cheerleader, Capt. of Field Hockey Team, ran Track, very social, traveled to Spain anf Florida several times by the time she was 16 years old. Hit College and turned into a party animal for a year or 2, got it out of her system. Not married, works as a Insurance adjuster for Horizon Bay Retirement Homes in Florida.

Child #5 (M) Very smart but had no interest in school, very seldomed went to a party, loves to be outdoors. Can do anything on a computor, it's sickening! Got into trouble once during his Senior year....smoked pot on the school bus and was suspended for 5 days. This was 3 days after he held his Grandmother's hand while she passed away. I can only assume this was his way of acting up as he never did anything like that before or ever again.

I have been extremely blessed, these are minor things compared to what just one of my neighbors kid has done. I would not trade places with those parents for anything in this world!

Yes - not so bad, Celeste!!

Yes, they sound like wonderful kids. I'd love to meet them all. My son is also very smart, but has no interest in school... How do you help kids like this grow? I'm tired of nagging him.

Does he have any particular interests yet? There are many specialized public schools these days.

With Josh I often pointed out to him how he could help people and enjoy what he was doing plus get paid! Example: When he was 15-16 my GF called and said she had something wrong with her PC and could Brian come look at it. Brian(DH) was laid up so I said maybe Josh could look at it, he's really good with them. Brought Josh over, he messed around for about 10 minutes, said you have a virus, it's bad but im pretty sure I can get rid of it. He played around for about an hour and then announced it was fixed. He looks at it as a challenge, and it spurs him on. My GF was so impressed and grateful she gave him $40, that helped light the fire too!

That's great!

Harper - perhaps he is gifted and school is boring him silly.

My son is smart, and if he was interested in the subject or really liked the teacher he had straight A's, if he was not interested, he'd get B-C's. So that is a big factor.

I know that I'm dragging back the old topic but bet you guys have never heard of this one...
I have a 6-year-old girl. You can take away anything, won't phase her. I even asked her once to pick up her toys and she refused. She was supposed to go to the Fair that day with her friends. Told her that she wasn't going unless she picked up. Still wouldn't. Didn't go to the Fair. Didn't phase her. I would have been crying my eyes out at her age.

She is all girl though. Told me at the age of 4 that I could burn all of her pants because she only wanted to wear dresses and skirts, the puffier, fluffier, fancier the better. The best punishment?? Boy clothes. She has to go to school the next day in plain jeans. Plain black or navy shirt (baggy of course). Sneakers (ugh). No hair accessories. For really bad offenses boy underwear. Simple, yet effective. Got to find that Achilles heel. Different for everyone.

So true!

That's too funny dancingbear!!

I'm sure DS is bored in school. Like your son, Deb, he gets much better grades in the classes he likes. I guess that stands to reason.

Don't know of any specialized public schools around here Victor.

the current educational system is so problematic - set up for the least common denominator - i see this with the other students in my college classes, who have recently graduated from high school.
i know there are good programs, and many excellent teachers, but

there isn't a love of learning - some classes i feel like the students are actually hostile to learning anything - they just want to get an acceptable grade and to get out. perhaps this attitude comes out of a system where the focus is on high test scores and not leaving anyone behind.

Home plays a big role. Importance of learning needs to be instilled - by example, from the parents. We are constantly telling our kids, who are still young, how we did it, how we love it and all the doors it opened for us.

... just getting caught up here...
Hey, Victor - My mom is the youngest of 15 too!
10 girls 5 boys. 15 pregnancies-15 kids. That inself was unusual. There were no miscarriges or still births.
This all spanned 1904-1927. This included what were called "Irish Twins". They were born the same year - My aunt on January 1904, and an uncle in December of the same year.

Needless to say, punishment wasn't an issue back then.
Whatever Papa said, Papa meant. Period. End of story. No one ever questioned it. That's just the way it was.

My mother said we'll never know what he would have done if any of them caused trouble - they just didn't.

All 15 weren't home at the same time. By the time Mom was born, the oldest 4 or 5 were on their own. (the eldest being 23 at the time) - Still, there were at least 10 there - ranging from age16 down.
When Mom was born, she was already an aunt. She has about 5 nieces/nephews a year or two yonger than herself.

I was blessed to know all of my mother's siblings except for one aunt who died at age 37 in 1945.
The others lived into their late 60's into the 90's.
All my uncles have died. There are only 4 girls left. "Baby" Mom who will be 81 this year. The oldest being my Aunt Frances who will be 99 in September.
This shot - taken in 1941 - shows Mama & Papa and all 15 children + one grandchild (rear/left).
Mom (with the braids) is in the front, next to my grandfather.

Lucky me!
I have the best famn damily in the world!
LOL!

Nancy

What a great picture, Nancy! You are fortunate to have something that shows the whole family - so many old pictures are lost or damaged over the years - that is really one to treasure...