For all the friends of characters

[hobie16]

Now most of the time a school tries to hand out any punishment, the parents show up defending their little darling...

Before moving to Maui we lived in a school district where a number of the parents were, how do you say it, loaded. They weren't afraid using their perceived clout to put teachers in their place so the teachers tread very softly whenever there were issues with the little darlings.

I get home from work one day and my wife announces that our oldest kid had forgotten to take a snack to school and had snitched one out of another kid's bag in the coat room. Turned out the other kid was the only one who brought Oreo's, was the biggest kid in the class, and belonged to a minority group that tended to rat pack anyone they didn't like.

I told my kid to open up her piggy bank and pull out $5. We headed to a grocery store where we bought the biggest package of Oreo's available. She spent the ride home counting her change trying to figure out what her actions had cost her.

The next morning I took her to school. We walked into her classroom where organized chaos was in full swing before class started. The teacher was sitting at the front of the room. We walked up and I said, "Hi. I'm Andrea's dad and I understand there was a problem yesterday about some cookies."

The teacher, with a deer in the headlights look replied, "Ummmm errrrrrrr well, there was a misunderstanding about..."

I cut her off and said, "The only misunderstanding was between Andrea's ears. She's decided to atone for her actions by buying the class some cookies. I gotta get to work so I'll leave it up to you on how to hand them out."

I left. As I turned to walk out the door I looked back and saw the teacher still sitting there looking dumbfounded at the cookies. She probably had a good story to tell in the teacher's lounge that day.

[WEDFan]

I cut her off and said, "The only misunderstanding was between Andrea's ears. She's decided to atone for her actions by buying the class some cookies. I gotta get to work so I'll leave it up to you on how to hand them out."

Bravo! Well done.

BTW, this is my 100000000th post!

(I think I mentioned before that I'm an old-time computer guy. ;) )

[bookbabe]

I cut her off and said, "The only misunderstanding was between Andrea's ears. She's decided to atone for her actions by buying the class some cookies. I gotta get to work so I'll leave it up to you on how to hand them out."

Can I just say I love you? :D: :hug:

[Shorty82]

[hobie16]

Can I just say I love you? :D: :hug:

Gosh, sure.

[Lasolimu]

Although I have to say, I'm going to just sit back and HOWL with laughter when these kids hit the real world and realize it just doesn't work like that!

Hmm, I imagine there will be quite a bit of therapy as they realize that the world doesn't revolve around them. That would probably be a good profession to go into at this point, you'll be rich!

[DonutGoddess]

Oh god.. the hand. It makes me shudder to remember it!
There you are, goofing off and having a good time. Then, all of a sudden.. out of NOWHERE the 'RUBBER ARM OF DEATH' comes around the corner and *SMACK*. You sure as hell didn't screw around in a theme park because when your parents said "Keep it up and we're leaving" them really would. Right after a very public whooping if you really screwed up.

"Do you want to go sit in the car? We can go sit in the car." My parents did not have A/C in either car and I grew up in S. FL. No way did I want to sit in the car.

Or "We can leave now, do you want to leave?"

Oh and I really grew to loathe those paddle ball paddles which my dad took when the ball broke off. I made the last one last FOREVER!

[felinefan]

Yeah, getting spanked for stuff really made you stop and think before you did something. "Is this something that I could get in trouble for if I do it?" Kids these days think, "What are my chances of getting away with this?"

Dear Abby once printed a list of things that kids could get into trouble for, in the 1950s and a contrasting list for the 1990s, I think. What a difference!

I grew up reading about how kids used to have to stand/sit in the corner wearing a dunce cap; in my day we didn't have the dunce cap, but we still had to stand in the corner facing the wall. When we were in Australia 1965-66, the teacher used to cane kids that didn't behave.

[delsdad]

When we were in Australia 1965-66, the teacher used to cane kids that didn't behave.

Our principal used to do that to those deserving at my school in Northern Ontario in the early 80s !!

[shilohmm]

You sure as hell didn't screw around in a theme park because when your parents said "Keep it up and we're leaving" them really would. Right after a very public whooping if you really screwed up.

I dunno. My dad was a spanker, but he was also prone to the empty threat. I'd act up because I was tired or burned out or otherwise wanted to go home, and he'd do the "Keep it up and we're leaving" routine, but we almost never left when he said it. And spanking never worked on me when I was acting out because I was tired; I'd just get more wound so less obedient. Which is probably partly why my parents to this day say "nothing we tried on you ever worked." Hubby was a yeller and a spanker who didn't otherwise follow through, like my dad, and the kids ignored him a lot, too.

I, OTOH, quit spanking about the time youngest was born, but I was a firm believer in "consequences." If I said, "Keep it up and we're leaving," and they kept it up, then we left, boy howdy. The kids listen to me, to the point they ignore their dad, I say straighten up, they straighten up. So it's more about setting limits and holding to them than about spanking per se, I think.

Although hubby's a lot more fun than my dad was. I've been about to tell them to cut something out because it's too rowdy for where-ever we are, only to realize their dad is the one leading the parade -- or telling them to "do it again, so I can take a picture of it."