September 19, 2012
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Discipline Advice Wanted
This is a picture of Nikki’s dollhouse. I bought it for her (along with a whole bunch of furniture and accessories) at a garage sale a couple of years ago. She loves it. Or so I thought.
Looks pretty cute, doesn’t it?
Well, how about, if one day you are playing downstairs with your older brother, and you two decide (for reasons quite unknown) that it would be really fun to bang on the dollhouse with this:
A toy hockey stick.
Now, one side of the dollhouse roof looks like this. ^^
The other side looks like this ^^ — And, if you remove the little hankey that they so thoughtfully stuffed into the hole in the middle of the roof, it actually looks like this
(See below)
I was QUITE upset with them!!
Jeremy and I have been trying to think of a proper punishment.
Plus, I am just always curious how another parent would respond to something like this.
Would you just laugh it off and say “Kids will be kids”, would you scold them and let it be, or would you be upset and mete out some sort of punishment?
Jeremy and I felt like they were definitely being purposely destructive. It was NOT an accident. They were both involved. We are trying to think of a punishment that fits the crime.
Help, please!
And, while we’re at it: I have another issue with the kids that I am currently undecided on.
The other day they played ball in the yard. We have told them over and over and over that when they are done playing ball outside, they must bring everything in.
Well, they didn’t.
The dog picked ONE ballglove to chew on and destroy, and it was mine!!
Not only is that glove very important to me because I love how it catches and I am used to it, but also, gloves are not cheap to buy.
Would you make the boys pay for a new glove? Help to pay for one? What would be your response to that?
I feel like I should sign this like they used to do in those “Dear Abby” letters in the newspaper.
How about –
“Disappointed Donna”
or
“Weary in Wisconsin”
Comments (7)
oh, disappointed donna, that hanky totally made me laugh!!
Well, for the first scenario, I’d see what you have to do to repair it, maybe paint a new board and glue or nail it over that one? Obviously I’m no carpenter. But then I’d make THEM do the repairs. After the repairs are over I’d then make them lose the privilege of playing with it for a certain amount of time. 2nd scenario, I’d definitely make them pay for it. That’s way not cool. Even if they have to mow lawns or do chores or sell lemonade or what ever it is you do to get money.
I’ll be interested to hear everyone’s responses.
first of all, my kids would NEVER do shit like that!!! totally kidding. lately, it seems i am burned out on parenting, and i choose the lazy route of not doing anything. however, what i think could be a healthy consequence is to take the dollhouse away and give her a list of things to do to earn it back. (how else do you think my floors get washed and the laundry folded??!!! I actually welcome behavior like this so that i dont have to do that shit.) ;) and, yep, i would def make my kid help pay for a new glove. (the best parenting book/seminar/talk/anything that i ever listened to was a “Love & Logic Class” taught at one of the schools here in town. it was like a 4 week course or something. you can look them up online and find a class near you if there is one. seriously, the most straightforward balance between grace and being too authoritative.)
ok so let me preface this with the fact that I don’t have kids of my own but have done 10 years of babysitting to know what I’d do
For the dollhouse, if it was me I’d probably let it go and not care about it since it was their property that they messed up. I mean growing up I remember cutting the fur on my stuffed animals. It sounds like it does matter to you though so I’d say getting they should get grounded from certain activities that they enjoy as well as fix it.As for the glove, yeah I’d say they should pay for a new one.
this looks quite familiar. and, because of that, i have zero, absolutely no words of advice. us deciding how to deal with issues like this is rather…interesting. because we were brought up rather differently, our coming to a conclusion on how to discipline can be somewhat difficult. it’s so easy for me to go ‘when i was a kid, we didn’t HAVE stuff to tear up! you kids have no idea how good you have it!’ and, then lay down the law… which can seem totally ridiculous. being parent is some-thing else, isn’t it?!
Makes me upset when i find stuff destroyed too. (don’t know if I have advice on that one). I do think that kids need to learn to value their toys though, so it definately needs addressed. I think that often they get involved in the action and not really think about the consequences.The ball glove, on the other hand, I would definately have them replace. that’s just MY opinion.This parenting thing …