crescat parenting 101…

… my cousin & I are diabolical when it comes to devising punishments and teaching consequence. Her kids and The Boy lament the unfairness of it all that so many adults should conspire against them. Admittedly, it one of the joys of parenting.

Over the years we’ve come up some wonderful doozies; I’ve taken the boy to school in his underwear for refusing to get up and dressed for school on time, her kids have worn light switch plate necklaces [The Necklace of Shame] to the mall for constantly forgetting to turn off the lights and most recently we’ve decided to make our kids buy back all their toys they can’t seem to remember to put up when they are done playing.

It’s a simple but effective concept; collect any stray toys, clothes, books, video games [etc.] and lock them up in your room. When they go searching for it explain that it was not put away properly and you confiscated it. They can do one of two things, 1) buy the item with extra chores or 2) buy the toy back out of their allowance money.

So far I’ve gotten the car washed, the garden weeded, the a/c vents and return grills vacuumed and cleaned out and reclaimed $13.00 of The Boy’s allowance money.

I’m not all evil. I did use the money to buy our Mackerel Snapping Papist family cheese pizza on Friday.