So who is being punished again?

Discipline and Punishment ...

Funny little things.

Both meant to teach our children (and/or adults) order and keep them on the right path.

So here is where I am having an issue.

Poppins, "You are being naughty, you need to please go sit on your bed right now."

Child, "I don't want to go sit on my bed."

Poppins, "I'm sorry you feel that way, but I wasn't asking, I was telling." (The only time in my life where telling is ok...sorry....writer joke)

Child, "But I want to watch TV."

Poppins, "And I want a million dollars, you don't see me getting my way. Now go sit on your bed."

Child, "But that's boring."

Poppins, "Exactly"

Child, "But....."

And so on and so forth until eventually ... you know what comes next ...

Tears

Screaming

Fits

Meltdowns

You know ... the kind that comes shrill cries and screams of "I don't want to!!!" and "You always make me sit on my bed!!" and all sorts of other things that are not true but still make the hairs on your back stick straight up.

In the mean time you are thinking...

Chocolate

Sunny Beaches

Happy Places

Patrick Dempsey... I mean Peaceful Serenity

And all this happens in about 1.3 minutes but feels like 12.9 hours.

This is how punishment and discipline happens in my house. Fortunately we were graced with a particularly difficult child and no matter what the punishment, the battle of wills rages on before it is ever carried out.

I love it...I love setting up consequences that punish me more than my children.

I'm not really complaining a whole lot but mostly just laughing at how torturous lovely parenthood is. Its just been one of those weeks over here in the Poppins household. Me of all my forceful and cruel tactics of making my child sit on his bed or pick up his room. I'm practically the meanest parent alive!

Do you ever find yourself the one being punished in the midst of discipline?

But there are Starving Kids out There!!!

I write one comment on a blog and it totally gets my noodles pumping. Why can't that happen every day!

So my dear writer friend Jill (Check her out ... she Rocks!) is talking about underestimating things ... time being one ... food being another. I mean I'm sure none of you have ever underestimated how much food you intended to eat. I know I do it pretty much every day have never done something like that!

Then I made a comment - trying to come up with a good excuse - that my mother always made to me as a child.

"There are starving kids out there!"

Which was always followed with,

"Do you think they'd want to waste their food. You should be grateful for the food you have."

After which I would think,

"These peas suck, do you want me to put them in a box and ship them to the starving kids? Cuz I'll totally do it. I've got no problem with sharing!"

So after making this 'starving children' comment I started thinking...that is the most horrible comment EVER! I mean think about it. In a matter of words we are saying something insanely inappropriate.

"You have tons of food and these kids have none. So be happy that you aren't a poor starving child with nothing and in remembrance to those children... Eat up!!!"

Seriously?!?!

Now I don't know about you, but in reality this thought makes me completely NOT want to eat. There are starving kids out there. They don't get to eat, but I'm suppose to go shove my face with food (whether I like it or not) and rationalize how this is somehow helping these kids.

Is anyone else bothered by this? Granted when I was 6 or 7 years old I totally understood what my mom was trying to say, but now that I'm an adult ... I find it slightly entertaining that our parents said this to us thinking it would get us to eat our food.

Ahhhh Parenthood. Full of ridiculous threats and irrational comments! Isn't it grand what comes out of our mouths at the spur of the moment?

Now you better comment on this blog or I'll tell your father and you won't see the TV again for at least a year! And during that time you'll be washing the floor with your toothbrush!