!?Creative Discipline?! .. Parenting with a Twist .. What's Yours?

[maidn]

 We have all heard the arguments to spank or not to spank. A recent journal made me think of some of the more "creative" methods of discipline I used on my brood of 6 Looking back I couldn't help but smile a little bit , shake my head and laugh . And I wondered if any of you out there had in a moment of inspirations or desperation as the case may be, employed a .... less than traditional method of discipline. 

 Over my 26 years of parenting 6 children I have done some pretty weird things to get the point across that I was at the end of my rope ... had tied the knot... and was presently  contemplating making a noose to hang myself with it ! Sometimes in a stroke of genius others simply exasperation I would try to make the punishment fit the crime.  For example when I had had it with my then 7 year old daughter and her 5 year old brother making faces and doing the .... "He's looking at me " nonsense .  I sat them in the middle of the floor with all of us sitting around watching them for a full five minutes and made them make faces at each other for all of us to watch . Sounds dumb I know and for the first few minutes they got quite a kick out of ... 5 minutes is a long time though to a 5 and 7 year old . By the end they would be begging to quit . And better yet the facemaking would usually quit ... at least for a few days . Another time one of the kids as a teen refused to get out of bed with out me constantly griping ... for those of you with teens you know what I mean !  So this child being a girl and having to do the mandatory girl things of shower, makeup , hair ... admire self in mirror thing , it was really a pain. Especially when we had one bathroom at the time and 5 children under roof . Anyway I set a certain time and went down and shut off the hot water ... either she was up and showered by the time I set or she took a cold shower ... or ((((((gasp ))) and (((((( horrors)))) ) went with out  . According to her this was cruel and unusual punishment but after 2 days of going to school grubby . She found her alarm clock ... learned to set it and suddenly was miraculously cured of her  mysterious hearing impairment that prevented her from hearing  alarms before 7 a.m. 

Sometimes a weird and unusual punishment can get the point across better than more traditional methods and it never hurts to sprinkle parenting and family life with a healthy dose of humor , no matter how slapstick and ridiculous it may be . To this day stories of mom's unusual punishments are told and retold at holidays and family gatherings . Lending to a sense of cohesion in much the same way as family traditions do .I get a few eye rolls from in-laws from time to time but we all have a good laugh !

So  have you ever resorted to  "creative discipline" ? 

Did your parents ? 

Lets hear about it ....

Parenting is a serious job but honestly sometimes we all take ourselves a little too serious .... we all need to laugh a little more !

And have you heard cold and flu season is right around the corner . Laughter has been shown to boost your immune system ... 

So take a joke a day and .... call me in the morning !

And while your at it take a look it this cute video

Now tell me you don't feel a little better . 

Maid'n

[mumma28]

Sep. 27, 2009 at 4:22 PM

My parents' had no creative discipline techniques other than changing the object they used to hit you with.

I have come up with a few. We have made my son write so many times, "I will not....daydream in class, ignore my mother, etc. Right now he is already grounded for the weekend due to his behavior in school. He was in trouble because he ad a tantrum in class. We made a bet, if he throws a tantrum, he gets money deducted from his allowance, and if I throw a tantrum I have to buy him a toy (cheap, and small). We both lost the bet this weekend. Right now he is outside pulling weeds because not once, but twice, while the baby was trying to nap, he woke her up on purpose. Not to mention that adds an extra day to his grounding punishment.

I don't know how creative that is, but I hope it works.

[Dani32]

Sep. 27, 2009 at 7:38 PM

Thank you for the tip on how to get a teen out of bed without griping.  I will have to try it on my oldest.  As I said in the journal you speak of, doing push ups has worked tremendously. I also have "consequence" jar.  Whenever a chore isn't done or bad grades, etc they must pick from the jar.  Inside the jar are added chores. 

[maidn]

Sep. 27, 2009 at 7:45 PM

I like the consequence jar I may have to try that ...  it could be a perfect a place for all those icky jobs that never get done ... like cleaning out the the green furry stuff at the bottom of the fridge ! 

(Original Poster)

[freshand40]

Sep. 28, 2009 at 5:26 AM

i too have used creative correction through the years.  i a mother of five children and although three of my children are grown and on there own i am still raising ten year old twins.  mikayla one of my twins is a ten year old girl with down syndrome and creative correction is a daily thing.  i have had to use many methods. the latest though was a challange.  mikayla is very stubborn and i thought we would never get her to sleep in her own bed.  every night she would go into her twin brothers room to sleep. this bothered him badley so i used gates, well she figured out a way around them.  finally i came up with the idea of taking something away from her that she really loves HER MOVIES.  mikayla loves her movies.  i took them all away and told her when she sleeps in her bed like a big girl she will get some back and more each day.  i also got the school involved and they said she can bring one to school and they can watch it.  souonds simple don't it.  well two weeks went bye and she still was sleeping in her brothers bed.  i was getting very discouraged and thought perhaps this wont work but then she slept in her bed one night and we spent the day praising her letting her have a few movies and she took one to school.  i was so happy, and she was so proud. but that night she slept in her brothers bed again so in the morning i took all her movies away again.  it took another week without her movies and she was not at all happy.  finnally for the past five nights she has finally slept in her bed and every morning she goes to the movie box as soon as she wakes up.  it goes to show that one hs to be consistant and sometimes to the point to where you want to give up to make things happen.