Imaginative Discipline
Ok...I was just reading some posts about a mom who wants to discipline her skids, but the parents get laughed at. I think a number of us have dealt with that and it sucks!
So...here's my question. What is the most imaginative thing you have done to discipline your child(ren) or skid(s)?
I have a couple of examples...one from myself and one that I recently saw in the newspaper.
First, my idea. When my BD and SD were much younger, during the time when they went to daycare instead of school, there was one particular day that they decided they wanted to show the boys (at daycare) their panties. I was bound and determined to stop this behavior in it's tracks. My sister in law worked for the local newspaper at the time and was coming over, so I called her ahead of time and explained what I wanted. I had her bring her camera in with her when she arrived (the girls were sitting on the couch in "time out). She asked the girls to stand up because she wanted to take their picture for the paper. They were a little excited until she told them that she wanted them to show their underwear in the picture, like they did it at daycare. I have never seen my girls so horrified!!! They started bawling, but after we got them calmed down, we had another talk about why that behavior was not very nice. They never did it again!
The idea in the newspaper: I recently saw a report in the paper about an ad that a dad had taken out for his daughter. Apparently, his daughter missed curfew, so her punishment was 30 hours of free babysitting. The dad put the ad in the paper to "drum up" some business for his daughter to fulfill her discipline. I think that's a great idea!
I think it's wonderful to be able to step back and come up with something new and unexpected. I think it also helps the kid to see that we aren't this spanking/yelling/time out robot!
Bring on the ideas! I am
Bring on the ideas! I am having a heck of a time with my stubborn BS10 right now, he practically refuses to do his homework. So far I have removed everything from his room, no TV, video games, no computer priveledges. Basically the only thing he has to his name in our house is a football (has to complete 20 minutes of physical activity each night for gym class)and books. Oh by they way the gym homework gets done
But on the rest I still get a refusal and a lot of "I don't cares." Very frustrating considering he has already been held back once so letting him fail is not an option.
My BS is only 8 months old,
My BS is only 8 months old, so no discipline for him.. yet! but some friends of mine have done some inventive things!
One friend used to make her son sit in the bathroom for time out. I said "What?" She said it wasn't a punishment for him to go to his room because he had a TV, toys etc... so what the heck was he going to do in the bathroom? She said it worked like a charm one mention of time out in the bathroom and her son was all about behaving!
Another friend got a call from the school that her son was kicked off the bus for a week because they caught him sticking gum on the seat. She said, kicking him off the bus was unacceptable, after all who was THAT punishing, but HER! So she suggested that they bring the bus over to his school the next day during his lunch and that he be made to go out and clean all the papers, gum etc off of the bus. Bus garage agreed and she said the only thing that would have made the punishment better would have been if she could have been there to see the big old bus pull up and watch her son have to go out in front of all his friends and spend his lunch cleaning up the bus.. haha She also said it worked like a charm, he never caused trouble again on the bus!
We have time-out, one minute
We have time-out, one minute per age. I make the boys sit where they can't interact in watching the movie, playing the game, whatever is going on at the time. They have to sit and listen to the rest of the family having fun, and I think it makes them feel like they're missing out more.
I haven't had to put either one of the boys in time-out for a few months though, so something here is working.
We just started a new rule
We just started a new rule last night at the dinner table. We haven't worked out all the details yet, but our new punishment is cleaning the catbox. That's the worst job in the whole house. The kids are pretty good. They help out around the house are mostly respectful and polite and do what we tell them. They've just gotten into some bad habits after being around BM for a month this summer. SO...
Last night, I had to repeatedly tell SS6 to get his elbows off the table while we were eating dinner. The skids know our rules for eating - no smacking, don't eat like a pig, no elbows on the table, ask to be excused before you get up, etc. All the stuff I and most everyone I know were raised with. So DH came up with the catbox idea. SS did it again after he was told about the new punishment and he got to scoop out the catbox after dinner last night.
DH said this will be used for the minor annoying infractions that we hear ourselves correcting over and over and over again. Like leaving their stuff all over the place, leaving a light on when they aren't in the room, not picking up after themselves after a bath, SD9's "forgetfulness", etc.
I'll have to wait til dinner to see if it was effective with SS and his elbows at all.
My son used to slam his door
My son used to slam his door when his was a younger teen in order to "show off" his frustration and anger (big man, right?)
Until the day I told him that if he slammed his door again he would "have no door" to slam.
And, of course, he did indeed slam it weeks later when he was angry over some injustice he thought was facing!
So, I went up to his room and calmly popped the bolts out of the three hinges and took his door away, then reminded him what I told him the previous week- and he lost his door for 3 days.
It took about three more times of repeating this scenario before BS no longer slammed his door!
When my ss was about 6 or 7
When my ss was about 6 or 7 he had sticky fingers and we were at the science surplus store then we went to a motorcycle shop. When we got to the motorcycle shop we discovered he had a dinasaur in his pocket (would have cost approx 10 cents). My BF talked to him about why it's wrong to steal and that he would go back to the store to apologize after we were done at the shop we wanted to go to. We went into the mortorcycle shop and were looking around, we made him sit on a stool and told the owners(imagine big burly bikers lol) and told them he needs to be watched cuz he has sticky fingers. By now ss is crying. We then take him back to the science store but he had to sit on his hands, so when they went numb he would know what it was like in other countries when they chopped off his hand for stealing. He went in the store with his dad and apoligized to a worker and returned the toy. SD also told us that he does this a lot with BM. BF tried to take SS to the police to show what happens when you steal, but the police department couldn't show him a jailcell. He also had to call BM and tell her what happened. Needless to say that never happened with us again.
Another good one I hated that my dad did to me and my sisters when we fought was make us stand nose to nose for 5min and if we continued fighting or whining/crying while doing this he threatened with another minute on the clock.. It worked..lol
Oh man!!! I like the nose to
Oh man!!! I like the nose to nose thing!! I would be scared that my SD (who is a great deal bigger..taller and weighs more..than the other twoand who has a temper like no one I've ever met) would haul off and hit whomever she was nose to nose with.
I can remember my parents used to make my brothers and I hug eachother!!
When my oldest son (BSnow21)
When my oldest son (BSnow21) was in middle school, he was a real jerk. He got in trouble for not completing his homework, so I took away his television. He said "You can't take that television...my DAD gave it to me. It's not yours to take". I said "ok". Then I walked downstairs and cut the power to his room. He had a room over the garage that was on its own circuit breaker thingy. All I had to do was flip the switch. And voila! No power.
He threw a fit. I calmly said, "it may not be my television, but its my power".
He no power in his room for a week. No light. No television. No stereo. Nothing!
I was watching a rerun of The
I was watching a rerun of The Middle last night and heard one that I thought would be pretty effective. The teenage son lied to the parents and went off to meet with a girl when he said he'd be somewhere else. His punishment was to be within 5 feet from either parent for a certain number of days.