No fish for you...

[Polenicus]

This is a severe punishment, and those tend to garner horrified reactions, but this was a severe crime.

Broke Grandma's leg? Painted her car? Put holes in the walls? They probably went right up one side of grandma and down the other, because they knew she couldn't stop them.

This might not be the perfect way to deal with the crime, but it's at least one that was thought out and targeted. Parents offered a reward for good behaviour, kids did not behave well, and in fact were the total opposite, so not only is reward taken away, but it's coupled with a punishment.

In the day and age when we'd have so many parents who would sigh, shrug, and just give the kids the fish tank anyway, or go way over the line into screaming abusiveness, this is probably one of the better ways of dealing with it.

And I think it's a good thing the hole in the wall is already cut. A permanent reminder of what they could have had, but lost because they didn't behave. That's bedtime fable-style justice right there.

[Aethian]

Ladies and gents, perhaps I wasn't as clear as I thought I was. Two sets of twins...FOUR kids not two.

But yea it is one of those justice type punishments that just can't be done again.

[Crawley]

What I did at the county fair that day pales in comparison to what these two kids did.

*Grabs his box of popcorn and awaits story time with Uncle Irv*

[jedimaster91]

*Grabs his box of popcorn and awaits story time with Uncle Irv*

*plops down next to Crawley with a few bottles of soda* I've GOT to hear this story.

I might have taken it a step farther and made the kids explain to the CSR processing the return why they had to give the stuff back. The mom telling random strangers is a bit much, IMO, but hopefully it worked and those kids have been ever since. Not likely, but hopefully.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

If I'd done wht those children had done - I not only would not have gotten my fish, but I'd been stuck with caring for Grandma AND the entire neighborhood would have known what happened.

Back in the neighborhood I grew up in, we all knew what everybody's kids had gotten into. If it weren't Butt's 4 kids, it was BB's two boys or the next door neighbor's one boy (who was notorious for causing mischief and then trying to blame my brother for, but that I'll save for another thread) or the neighbor's neices and nephews (who lived up the street) or the two brats on the far corner who liked to stand at the corner and show off their "sign language" skills (ie, flipping off) and shouting obcenities as passersby. We were all angels compared to those last two mentioned (we had better things to do and better manners than to flip off and yell at people.)

Believe me, just the mere thoughts of Mom's friends Butt and BB knowing I'd done something that horrible was enough to keep me in line.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

*Grabs his box of popcorn and awaits story time with Uncle Irv*

*plops down next to Crawley with a few bottles of soda* I've GOT to hear this story.

Did I state that wrong? I meant that what I did at the county fair was nothing compared to what those kids did.

All it was was whining and begging for games and rides, running in front of other kids for the best seats on rides, refusing to hold my mom's hand and so forth.

[rerant]

This is the part that disturbs me... Mom decided it wasn't enough to make the kids return the parts themselves, she has to tell everyone that they weren't good enough for the fish? That seems a bit out of line. Especially if it didn't stop until someone started crying.

I agree. Everything up until that point was perfect. Kids want tank, kids get tank. Kids have to behave, kids ROYALLY FUCK UP, kids have to return the tank themselves.
Hell, if the mom went on and on about how the kids F'd up to just Aethian I'd say that's perfectly fine, but to just randomly go about telling strangers? Naaaah, she should have quit while she was ahead.

[crashhelmet]

My dad was a Marine corps Dril Instructor. My mom is the daughter of a Marine. They would've made retyurn the items, take care of grandma, repaint the car, and fix the wholes in both granmdas house and ours. Then we'd be grounded "til they say we're off" and we would've ended up back in Military or Catholic school.

Similar to what PepperElf quoted from that guy's book, my dad used to threaten us with throwing our stuff away if we couldn't keep our rooms clean. I called his bluff one day and woke up the next morning on my bedroom floor with EVERYTHING in my room out on the curb waiting for the garbage men. I had to move it all back before I left for school and the trashmen got there.

CH

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Similar to what PepperElf quoted from that guy's book, my dad used to threaten us with throwing our stuff away if we couldn't keep our rooms clean. I called his bluff one day and woke up the next morning on my bedroom floor with EVERYTHING in my room out on the curb waiting for the garbage men. I had to move it all back before I left for school and the trashmen got there.

CH

My mom did that once when I was about 5. I guess she got tired of coming home from work late after working both jobs and stepping on Weeble Wobbles in the hallway. . .

She got out the big metal trash can and anything that was in my bedroom floor went into it. My dad protested, but stopped due to the fact that arguing with my Mom (even to this day and they've been divorced for 25 years now) is futile.

She hauled that overflowing can to the side of the house but it didn't stay long. My stuff came back into the house, but from then on I kept my room cleaned up and there wasn't anything left in the floor.

[Crazeyal]

My dad used to do something called "The White Tornado" He'd make us watch as he picked up EVERYTHING in the room and dumped it in a pile. THEN he'd make us clean it up.

[Darkwish]

Wow... those kids got off easy!

If I had done even half that (such as without putting granny in the hospital) I would have gotten such a beating I wouldn't have been able to sit for a week and THEN made to return everything. And if I had done all of that, I would have had ALL my toys given away on top of everything else!

I may have been a trouble maker (I still am actually ), but never anything serious/permanent, and I still got the belt several times.

My mother was never really that scrict with me, but I did spend the majority of my childhood grounded...

[Nyoibo]

I'm surprised that people think this was too harsh, depending on how old they were a bit older and they could be facing criminal charges for their actions.