DISCIPLINE

[Duchess]

Do you discipline your kids? Do you make them pay for their transgressions or do you let them slide? Have you ever grounded them or taken away privileges? Did your parents discipline you?

I've been grounded for calling one of my brothers a nigger. I once called my Mom out of the house to check out my new skill of popping a wheelie and the moment the front tire lifted off the ground the pack of cigarettes I had just swiped from my Mom flew out from under the seat where I had hidden them. Again, grounded. Typically the things that got me grounded were for what my Mom called, giving her lip or having a "smart mouth". To this day I don't understand that expression at all.

[Donovan]

I was the kid who caught ten times the punishment of my brothers and sister, mainly because I got unto ten times as much mischief and mom didn't deal well. I took a lot of heat meant for my father, who was and is a world class scumbag. Daily belt whippings, almost. Then pop with his psychological headgames, I became an adult who cannot rely on my own sense of what may be "appropriate punishment". I don't dare. So I stick with the education and training I've gotten over the years in college and my career in non-business behavior techniques. Most of the time it works amazingly well, but the real benefit is that I rarely get angry when discipline is necessary, there are no reactive or over-reactive moments.