If your child continued to get in trouble, what punishment would you employ?
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. . .here are my thoughts.
If your child continued to get in trouble, what punishment would you employ?
They’d be encouraged (i.e. forced) to read something of my choosing, followed by writing an opinion piece about the literature. But—you may be saying—I loved to read when I was a child; that wouldn’t have worked as punishment for me. I would respond with asking whether you were the type of kid who needed frequent punishment. It seems to me the kid who wants little more than to go home after school to bury her nose in a novel is unlikely to be the one to practice her art on the side of a train car, a cigarette between her lips whenever the throat of a 40-ounce isn’t. The prison system focuses on prisoner reform rather than strict punishment. Follow that lead by getting your little monster some orange PJ’s and a library card. Reading and writing are skills that can always be improved and are never a waste of time. Or you could just allow your troubled child to continue making their own mistakes. I’m sure some overworked and underpaid prison guards will eventually turn your little girl into the well-read novelist you couldn’t.
When my kids were growing up we just took away all phone privileges. No matter what they did, we took away the phone. It worked the best. Now my daughter takes away her sons Xbox and PlayStation. That works good. He knows when he did something wrong and he hides it sometimes. At times he has told them that he has done so and so you should take my electronics. Can’t figure him out.