We were planning to take the entire family to a park today with some friends. Last night, we found out my 7 year old daughter "borrowed" my wife's sapphire ring and left it at school. The thing we that got her in real trouble is she lied about it for a good 30 minutes. Now she is grounded, but I don't what to do with her today. Should we still go to the park so we don't ruin our and our friends plans and start the grounding tomorrow? Should we cancel today and make her feel guilty for screwing everyone over?
Leave her at some family members house who she doesn't like. Or take her to the park but keep her restricted (can't talk to people or play).
Don't cancel the plans continue to do your day... Let it be known in the car or before u leave that she is grounded for however long. List what she can do and can't. Start tomorrow. My girlfriends 5 year old son is starting to lie I catch him all the time.
Ah, man, she's showing excellent creativity in her manipulations and stunts. You don't want to nip that kind of ability in the bud! Just relax, if she's destined to become a criminal mastermind, so be it, at least you will have raised someone exceptional at something.
I agree. This is what my dad did with us. Punishment enforced immediately. The fact that the punishment affected more than just my brother or I had a powerful effect.
If you do end up going, just don't get her any treats, any souvenirs, etc. Feed her and that's it. If it were me I would have a real hard time cancelling on someone. I definitely would want to teach my kid a lesson but making plans with someone and then cancelling would be real tough for me especially if the other party is not understanding of the situation.
A guy I know built a "mini-jail" in his kitchen out of a large dog pen type of deal, and would force his grounded child to stay in there for long periods of time with only their school work and water. For meals, the family would eat like normal in the kitchen, but the "jailed kid" would get a lower quality meal and have to eat it in the cage.
*grin* Seriously Just be consistant. I would opt to not go. The issue with going is you will be tempted to 'let her off' for a few. If you there for 4 hours . . .after 3 hours of the hound dog eyes. . . you will relent!! *grin* Rocket River
the kid ended up fine The dad was a former military guy who was really intense. African American (no racist) guy who said his father would beat him much worse, THEN stick him in the cage, so actually his grounded child had it easy. lol
Sitter, and steer the storybooks and videos to stuff about stealing. If it were anytime after September I'd even consider cancelling her Christmas or even her birthday presents if that's coming up anytime soon. Even though she probably looked cute as heck shrugging her shoulders or denying it emphatically, the lying is the biggest risk factor: not for any moral reasons but because of the added autonomy. This is a pretty fun forum topic.
Daddy-O's, I always question the competency of parents who try to guilt their kids into feeling retribution. Don't worry so much about morals - in an ever changing, globalized world, they adapt to the generation at hand. As your girl grows up, she's going to do what she wants anyways. And she'll find ways to justify her actions to keep her happy. So punishing her on her path to self discovery is more of an oppressive, psycotic power trip that tells us more about you (a fully developed individual), than her. It will ultimately manifest itself in a sexual eruption of angst and poor decisions at the age of 15-16, aka, the spring break culture. This is to be expected from a people that idolize war and guns and breaking a person down into being easily controlled. Your misinterpretation of the bible has led you to create an environment where you act out your masochistic sexual fantasies by freely handing out punishments without thinking of how this affects the kid's subconscious. As a parent, you should empower your kid. Not cage them (literally, in Tex's parents case). The common man worries too much about being good. Being accepted. Doing "the right thing". But it only brings more resentment and frustration, as we can see in the bitter youth culture of today. ****, ****, bang, bang. What happened to being young and in love? I'm sure all the guys in this thread did the right thing growing up - and look where it got them. Overweight, emotionally numb, and attached to strings pulled by a fragile economic system. All this little girl wanted to do was play dress up and show off a ring to her friends. Is that a crime? Do you think if there was more understanding and communication in the household, she would have lied about it... Let her go to the picnic, be one with nature, and grow infinitely as a human being. -Ronald. 2012
