Meanest Mom on Planet

If you catch your kid with alcohol in the car, what do you do?  Sell the car, of course, by placing an expensive ad explaining in detail why the car is being sold.  Good or bad parenting?  That's exactly what a mom did, according to a CNN story I read (via the Mackenzie Clan).

The Meanest Mom on the Planet

Placing the ad in the paper is just shaming him unless the consequences were stated clearly upfront.  In general, unless you state the consequences upfront as a parent, I think you're on shakey ground.  I see this with my 3 year old and am struck by how agreeable he can be when I offer him a choice: "If you touch that, you will go in time out."

When he does go in time out, I release him by asking, "Why did you go in time out?" Remarkably, he almost always can clearly articulate why, even with his limited verbal skills. After he tells me why, I put my hand out palm down.  e then places his hand on top of mine, and together we say, "Let's start again," and we hug.  That's our favorite part.

Comments

[morgetron]

I go through the same time-out process with my five-year-old (since she was two) and did so with my now twelve-year-old. I agree the hugging part is the best part. I love to tell her that I love her even when she's naughty.

I also tend to agree with what you've said about the mother. If she said, "If I catch you with alcohol, I'm going to take away your car and sell it ... and I'm also going to take out an ad explaining why I'm selling it ... Well, that's just creative disciplining and you've gotta go through with it, if you've threatened it. But if it was just a whim, then there's about a thousand private ways to handle it. Take away the care -- yes! Public humiliation? Eh. No thanks.

One of the most creative punishments I've ever heard of was this: a girl kept leaving on the lights, TV, stereo, etc. The dad said, "If you do it again, you're grounded from electricity." She did it again, he grounded her from electricity. This meant no lights at night, cold showers, and campfire stew for dinner. Now that's creativity. And he told her up front. She was taking electricity for granted. She doesn't now. Wow.