His words were still hanging in the air when a bickering, nasty fight erupted between them. Stupid Mom. Trying to be nice, I said that they could place an online order for Chipolte, their favorite and one of them could run in and pick it up (The line at our local Chipotle is always out the door and if you order online, you just walk right up, pick it up and walk right out). One would think that their father's recent words and the promise of the favorite salt & fat laden burritos would have made them work together. What I heard instead was one of those annoying brother on brother bickering fights that makes my skin crawl.
Warning shots were fired. "Work together or I'm canceling the order", I said. "Stop fighting", I screamed. The nastiness got worse. I then told them that, not only were the burritos off the program that evening but anything with a battery or cord was now contraband.
All electronic devices were to be surrendered immediately for the remainder of the night. Laptops, iPhones, Kindles and iPads started to pile up on my dresser. Digital cameras, all tv remote controls and video controllers were also laid out. My bedroom looked like booth at a electronics convention. I tried not to add up how much money had been spent on all of this crap which would be out of date within a year or two.
The house was eerily quiet. I was in the throes of an amazing book and without the din of all of the plugged in items, it was quite peaceful.
"I am soooo bored. What am I supposed to do?" someone whined from outside my bedroom door. "Clean your room", was my reply
As the night progressed, everyone calmed down. The criminals decided to get along to see if I would give time off for good behavior. (I did not). An amazing thing happened. They started to show me some of their things that they found in their rooms that had been brushed aside in favor of electronic devices. I spotted books being read. A rubik's cube was trying to be solved. If you have teenagers, you realize that this is like spotting a white tiger on safari.
As I spoke to my husband late that night, we agreed that this was the best punishment ever. "If they are bad tomorrow, take everything away for 2 more days". Easy for him to say, he is not here to entertain the troops.
We woke up the next day and I was in a good mood. Electronics were given back but told that they would return to my room if civility did not reign in my home that day.
The best punishment ever!
8 comments:
Bravo Japolina !!! That's the way to do it, not send them to their rooms...that actually have all their goodies. When I hear"go to your room", I just have to laugh. Proud that you stuck by your punishment too. They learned something. Good for them too. xoxo,Susie
Perfect !
cheers, parsnip
Good for you for standing your ground!
Oh absolutely this was the best punishment ever. Whatever happened to imagination? Going to play outside? Making something? Good work, Mom.
I hope 2014 proves to be a good year for you and yours.
Maybe there should just be occasionally electronic free days. I dont mean just for your boys, but for all.. it would force people to interact face to face and to actually have conversations! though a day with out my computer might be tough to take.. LOL.. Id just sit at my craft table. Now take that away from me.. and I would not know what to do with myself! lol! well, unless it could be a beach day!
Happy sunday! I hope its squabble free! lol
xoxo
vivian
This is hilarious, that punishment would kill me too!
I really need to wean myself off my laptop but there's so much stuff to look at.
I think you did the right thing. Take away their priveleges and then they'll learn how to act better in the future. There's nothing worse than making threats and then not following through. Hopefully, they learned from this experience.
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