Here are the two ends of our house yesterday.
aw, story time with daddy
And what - sebastian is a hive of industry?
He was removed from story time and anything fun. He chose not to be a part of the house. The house that recognises respect and care for each other, he had chosen to belong to the house of Smartypantsness and whingitis.
You can't belong to two masters. Chose one and not the other.
He chose....poorly.
So he wrote out 45 times " I will not speak back to mummy again" ( on the spur of the moment I failed to come up with a longer sentence.) it started out as 10 times but then escalated quite quickly to 45 as the smart mouthing kept up and the boy tested my metal to see what I was made of. His gamble failed, the house doesn't lose. The house won't give in to terrorists.
The punishment was set. He was to sit and finished - he had 90 minutes to do so. There were angry outbursts, " this writing is a piece of junk, I'm going to break this pencil in two with my bare hands, etc etc the slew of angry words flew, but he gained control, he sat and gave in, he wrote the words, he learned a lesson.
Post punishment he was very affectionate and sweet, ah repentance it's a beautiful thing.
I am glad of Pinterest who gave me the idea of the lines, and Louise who's wisdom reminds me that the punishment needs to fit the crime.
Derek and I have been dreaming up more creative punishments for our feisty nearly seven year old for when he tests the boundaries next. My guess is he is exhausted from this last battle of wills, he has learnt it does not pay to rude to his mother, he has learned some self control. His handwriting has really improved!
He wants to be a part of the other end of the house the one that gets to hear Peter Pan in awesome daddy accents.
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