Punishment to fit the Crime

House rules are meant to be broken especially if the rules are sprung onto a child at a given instant of the act. Yesterday, the kids were to pick up the plastic food that they threw all over the room before we could do scripture study. Each child had to pick up 15 and then we would divide them from there. Mia quickly threw in her 15 and was even smart enough to pick up the food and pull them apart (velcro food. . .so realistic) to make her 15 pass faster. Tiago on the other hand slow rolled the process and even began sucking on the food. I told him that he needed to hurry and not to eat the food. "No one wants to touch your spit" I remind him as if he cares.

The sucking keeps going and becomes this power struggle. I threaten him that he will have to pull out all the food and clean it if he does it one more time. For those who don't have children, I will reveal the result:


Funny thing is, he loved cleaning them. He thought it was great. Mia got all excited and wanted to join too.I must confess, I sometimes feel like a bit deflated when my kids relish in the consequences. I think I have some innate feeling like consequences are negative and should never be enjoyed.

I am glad that we had a consequence that matched the choice and children who will be cleaning things on a more regular basis.