I got inspired to write this morning, after having read a story on a blog some time ago.
A little girl got inspired one day and decided to take a rock and scratch a mural on the neighbour's car!
Her punishment was, 5 days/nights of not being able to play with her friends. I suppose this meant, the child was to remain at home and not be able to have any friends over and no sleepovers either!
I was flabbergasted! To me, such a punishment was a simple tap on the wrist for such an enormous lack of respect towards another person's possession!
I approached my son (aged 10) this morning and flat out asked him:
"Would you take a rock and proceed to draw pictures on someone else's car?"
To which he immediately got on the defensive and said: "Mom, I swear I never did such a thing!"
I asked him to cool down and to simply answer the question.
Of course his answer was: "NO! Never!"
I then asked him: "WHY?"
"Because it is not right to touch another person's things, especially a car, as cars are very expensive to own and fix!" he said.
When I told him what this little girl had done, his mouth dropped to the floor! I then told him what her punishment was...
This is the funny part...
He responded:
"Geeze, if I would have done such a thing, I would have been punished severely!"
I asked him: "How's that? What do you think your punishment would have been?"
He then proceeded to respond:
1- I would have gotten the beating of a lifetime;
2- I would have been locked in my room for 2 weeks;
3- I would have only white bread and water to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner...
Needless to say, none of my children would have done such a thing as the punishment they would have gotten would not have been worth the 5 minutes of fun they think they would have had doing such a destructive thing!
RESPECT! Do not touch what is NOT yours!
It's a plain and simple rule every child, teenager and adult should know!
