Quote:
Originally Posted by flere-imsaho
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....  |
My dad was in the military and when my brother and/or I screwed up the first words out of our mouths to mom were: "PLEASE, don't tell dad." It very rarely got to that point but with that "threat" there I know I thought twice about being a moron.
So, like you guys have said, the boundaries need to be there, but, maybe more importantly, the consequences need to be firmly stated and followed through on when necessary. I think this is the part that is lacking these days. And with the traditional spanking now "not allowed" kids are nowhere near as worried about what's going to happen when dad gets home. Somehow losing internet access for the week seems far less severe than a one time spanking from dad.
Spanking needs to be reinstated and quick...my kids are still young enough to "benefit" from the threat!!