This concept comes from the Mother of all wisdom....my very own mother. Ever since I became a Mommy, I have the urge to call her everyday and apologize for taking her for granted, being a drama queen and my phase of thinking I was smarter.
If you have ever spent time with me and my sister, you've probably heard my Mom's discipline stories; she was famous for her creativity. Her philosophy, which is the subject of my mooching today, was "make it harder on them than it is on you." Essentially, make discipline swift and strong; making the consequences harder on the child than on the parent.
Allow me some examples:
-In 6th grade, she made me mad at the busstop. In a show of great indepenence, I slammed the door on her and stomped on the bus. Little did I know she got out of the car, (not at maximum cuteness, I might add), and followed me on the bus. The bus went silent. "You go shut the door correctly young lady." I did as she requested, and never slammed another door on her again. I still have nightmares about the silent bus.
-When my sis was in 5th grade, she kept "forgetting" to do her portion of the dishes. Mom's solution? Amy had to carry clean dishes in a sack all evening...even when she went to the neighbor's house to play. Mom even called the neighbor to ensure that my sis was carrying her dishes. Amy never forgot her dishes again.
-She told us that if we ever cut class in high school, she would escort us to all of our classes the next day. We were smart enough never to test her.
-If we were disrespectful or rudely disobedient, she would wake us up 30 minutes early to write sentences. Mom's sentences were a paragraph each. If we were really bad, she would throw in a loooooong scripture.
-If all else failed, we had to pull weeds. In the hot, Oklahoma heat. During morning cartoons. That fixed our attitude faster than anything. 
She became so much cooler once we were adults...
3 comments:
I am sooo filing those away. If I forget them, I may call you. I need all the help I can get with two girls.....they are already pretty tricky. I can only imagine what the "tween" years hold for me. You may just have to give me your mom's phone number :))
I always said, Make sure you're punishing the child, NOT yourself!!
A little background:
(1) I had on my "I Don't Do Mornings" duck t-shirt. Think they bought it @ a gas station and was my favorite. When I got out of that car, the bus driver took one look at me and re-opened the door. Was pretty noisy till I hit the top step....you were almost to the back when you noticed the silence...and horrified stares....
(2)The neighbors were NOT impressed. They wanted to carry her dishes....but at least I didn't have to babysit their kids anymore
(3)Maybe I wouldn't have walked you to class.....
(4)Improved your penmanship
(5)Ya'll always cried when I said,"I only want to see elbows and hineys".
(6)But if anyone else tried to mess w/ you....it wasn't pretty.
xoxo Mum
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