Thursday, April 23, 2009

Innovative Discipline

Ok, this lady in New York might have stepped over the line. Seems her two kids were fighting in the back seat, so she pulled over and put them out. One of them caught up with her and got back in, but the 10 year old was left stranded. A passerby picked up the young girl and took her to the police station.

When the mom contacted police to report the 10 year old missing, she was arrested for "endangering the welfare of a child." Maybe there was more to the story.

But it made me think, what innovative discipline techniques have I used? I know that I DID indeed pull the car over to give my kids a spanking (my daughter said more than once). I supposed in some books that would be child abuse.

One of my favorites (I stole from a caller to Dr. Laura) was taking the bedroom door off the hinges when one of my girls slammed the door (she was warned of the specific consequences before it happened). She changed in the bathroom and lived without a door for a week.

Another discipline was for locking the bedroom door. After explaining to my son for the 100th (hyperbole here) time that he wasn't supposed to do this, I quietly turned the door knob around so he could no longer lock me out. I was tempted on more than one occasion to lock him in, but never gave into the temptation. After a couple of weeks, he quietly put the doorknob back, but he didn't lock himself in any more (at least for a while).

Probably the most questionable thing I did was for sticking the tongue out at the table. Having just seen a Star Wars movie with Obie Wan Kenobe and Jar-Jar Binks, I knew what to do. I challenged her to do it again. When she did, I moved with Jedi speed and grabbed her tongue before she could pull it back in her mouth. I don't recall the exact response, but I'm sure surprise was involved. And I recall she never stuck her tongue out at us again (at least not where I could grab it).

So what innovative discipline techniques have you seen or used?

4 comments:

Nena said...

You shouldn't tell to much, they may come after us.

Alli and Erik said...

I say tell more...that makes me laugh!
I know that one day I will pay for that!

Brooke said...

I liked the teenager that was made to stand out with a sandwich board saying he was a future criminal after he came home with yet another failing report card and got in trouble with the police.

Steve: The Lightning Man said...

I'm working on inventing something called the KinderTazer (tm), which is sort of like a training shock collar for kids.....