Quote:
Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA
too many "best buddies" and not enough "parents"
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The local radio show was discussing this the other morning. My parents were firm but fair. If you knowingly did something wrong there was a clear and unambiguous retribution that would be visited upon you, but at least you always knew where you stood.
My brother & I were pretty good kids, though. Still, sometimes we'd get on our mother's nerves, and her last (and best) resort was to say: "Look, if you two don't straighten out, then when your father comes home I'll have to explain to him how you two behaved." Now, although Dad was certainly the authority of final punishment (i.e. he did the spanking), he rarely had to discipline us and wasn't particularly tough. But the greatest thing about this was the anticipation. The effect on two young boys, whose imaginations ran wild anyway, of what Dad would do when he got home, was tremendous, in spite of the fact that probably 95% of the time Dad didn't need to be told about us and nothing happened anyway. Funny how we never figured that out....
