On Thursdays I help another mum out by transferring her son from nursery to school. It makes Thursday lunchtimes a bit hectic but she helps me out on a Tuesday so it's worth the pain.
I was chatting today to her son and we talking about being good or naughty. He explained his parent's discipline system.
For his first offence he gets a yellow card. And from what I could tell, the only bad thing about a yellow card is that it means you've run out of chances.
For his second offence he gets a red card. Now the red card seemed very serious indeed because if he gets one of those then he gets taken to the children's home. I figured that was a threat that parent's wouldn't follow through on but it made me curious – what do you do when a child pushes the boundaries and gets a red card?
Well he told me he has been to the children's home and he told me stories about all the bad children and how he fought them and pushed them into prickly bushes (we were walking past bramble at the time).
You see I know the truth. His parents have bundled him into the car once and taken him to the children's home (in reality an old people's home). But once outside the children's home he saw sense, apologised and promised to be good.
What would they have done if he hadn't?
It's an interesting approach and one I wouldn't use. My children know I'll follow through with whatever I threaten, and Supernanny's naughty step seems to be a winner so far. I couldn't threaten them with a children's home for two reasons. Firstly I don't want them thinking I could or would do that and secondly I don't want them thinking that children in care are naughty.
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