Yeah, but retaliation is sooooo much fun. What he did wasn’t ‘bad’ (at least not as bad as some of the mischief he COULD have gotten up to) so blatant ‘punishment’ seems a little too formal.
So, I’ve decided to go with the ‘Revenge is a dish best served cold’ routine.
And so, when he least expects it…
What he did wasn’t “bad”? He essentially called you a “Goddamn woman” and “Screw you.” (OK, the computer actually said those things, but he caused it.) If this isn’t bad, I don’t know what is.
Still, if revenge is your desire, embarrassing him is best. Of course it will hurt and anger him–isn’t that the point of revenge?
Um, the words he used were ‘classics’ from the SouthPark program, uttered by a little twerp called Cartman (for the most part) and I don’t believe they were meant for me personally. I’m not a hippie, generally smell pretty decent, but I do admit to being a ‘Goddamn Woman’ sometimes. 
I don’t expect to make a real change for you kambuckta, but I’ll state my case anyway.
As I said I can’t get behind a retaliatory/revenge strategy with kids. I’ll come out and say it - it is bad parenting (in my view). Folks whine about how ‘kids today’ have no respect and wonder what the deal is. They love to blame music, TV, movies, etc. It comes down to this type of ‘buddy parenting’ in my estimation. Your kids are not your ‘buddies’ they are your responsibility. You are to assist in every way possible in helping them become the best people they can be. How is ‘getting’ them going to assist this noble cause?
If you felt slighted by the actions of your child let them know, either by discussion or by disciplining. If it wasn’t a big deal, then don’t make it a big deal. This is not to say that you shouldn’t have fun with them, but being mean, an/or encouraging/inciting mean behavior is not the way to go.
All the above are my opinion and observations.
If you know how the kid puts on his pants (eg. always the left leg in first) try sewing his right leg closed near the bottom. I didn’t do it, but was present when this was done to my brother. He puts his pants on standing up, and when his right leg became stuck, he hopped around on one foot about five times and plopped over on top of the Risk game he was involved in.
Physical revenge, but no pain.
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Originally posted by Kambuckta
Lemme see if I understand - it seems you feel that his disrespecting you & your needs was comparatively tame, so you don’t want to punish him. If, as Cheap Bastid said, he wasn’t really “bad”, then don’t make a big thing of it.
Looks as though you’re in this for the fun factor; you don’t find his actions genuinely worthy of a sit-down - you’re just ticked at the kid & want to see him squirm for your amusement.
That isn’t (IMHO) a very wise, nor a very mature way of handling things.
It sounds like kambucta has a good healthy relationship with her kid. Her kid feels comfortable playing pranks that don’t cause any serious harm and she can respond in kind.
I wouldn’t delete his files… maybe move them.
It sounds like the “unintended consequence” of this is the more important issue here - ie that kambucta wasted time trying to sort out a non-existence problem as a result of what junior thought was a harmless prank.
So yep, I’d relabel his MP3’s or move his games files. And I’d also sit him down and explain that while you realise he probably didn’t mean any harm, he did - in fact - create some. What if you’d decided to reformat the hard-drive?
I’m with CheapBastid here. Many adolescent boys are very good at taking things very out of proportion, and reacting “accordingly.”
Playful “fun” revenge might have consequences that will reverberate painfully for you, for years. Hopefully they won’t.
But make no mistake that the risk isn’t there.
I think the previous posters meant an actual Parliament, as in recordings of a meeting of a governing body, not George, Bootsy, and friends.
Kambuckta, bugger what some people say, I reckon a good cold dose of revenge is on the cards.
And to those who say that “sitting down and talking to the child” will help resolve this problem, then you obviously haven’t dealt with any 13 year old AUSTRALIAN males. They are likely to take little to no notice of what you say and will probably repeat the offence, IMHO.
Speaking as a 17 year old, I say move his files around and rename his MP3’s. He was just screwing around on the computer and came up with something to do that amused him. I’m sure there was no evil intent. As a matter of fact, I’ll be willing to bet he never even thought about anyone else coming across his little changes. So go ahead and get him. I think it’s good that you can be laid back and joke around with him a little. He’ll know you’re a force to be reckoned with 
Definitely only MOVE MP3s and Savegames. Do NOT delete them. If someone deleted my NHL2002 season, I would be LIVID. I’m 44 games into my season…that’s about 35 hours of gameplay. That takes me MONTHS to get back to…and it’s not like I can cheat and regain my stats. If someone did it to all my savegames, we’re talking a combined total of probably 100 hours of gameplay that I would have to repeat. That’s bad…very bad. Now, I only need to worry about a HD crash, since I live alone, but that’s what backups are for. 
I think I know what you should do. This may take a while to implement but revenge is a dish served cold.
Start downloading some absolute crap music that he will hate. N’sync, backstreet boys, brittany spears, tom jones, engelbert humperdinck, and whatever else pops into your head. This may take quite a bit of time depending on you connection.
Take all his MP3 and save them onto a data disk. Make a not of the directory structure and which files are where.
Greetings Opal
Remove his files from the computer.
Take the crap and rename it as his stuff, make it look like nothing has changed.
Sit back and enjoy the mayhem
The best thing to do is present it as a worst case scenario. Tell him that his little “joke” prevented you from completeing your paper and studying for your test. Because of that, you’ll be failing the class you’re taking. Then present him with the bill for tuition and books and ask him how he intends to pay it.
Let him stew for a few days, then emphasize the importance of thinking things through completely.
I like the idea of revenge although I would hate my mom for a while if she did this to me, of course that’s why I’m suggesting this: Since he’s 13 he probably masturbates. Try and figure out when he does this and walk in on him. After you “realize” what he’s doing. Have a long talk with him about how masturbation is alright and such, and bring it up from time to time over the next few months. This could also cause him to hate you for the rest of your life though.
At the dinner table, initiate a frank and explicit conversation about the sex you had with your husband last night. Make sure hubby’s in on the plan.
Do you know when he poops? Beforehand, lift the toilet seat and stretch plastic wrap over the bowl such that it’s invisible. Replace toilet seat. Wait for the inevitable screams as he essentially craps all over himself. (Or bake brownies loaded with chocolate-flavored Ex-Lax ;))
Walk around topless when his friends are over.
Wash one of his favorite articles of clothing in the bleach cycle.
If he wears boxers only, steal them all and hide them. Come home with tighty-whities. He’ll have no choice but to wear them.
Or, as Hosayf suggested, walk in on him when he’s masturbating.
So did you ever get him?
Hiding his MP3’s would be good, especially if you replace them with Englebert Humperdinck or something else he’d hate.
You could pretend that you suddenly converted to some weird religion and that you’d give away your TV and VCR. Try to talk him into burning his ‘sinful’ rock music.
But DON’T walk in on him when he’s masturbating and make some kind of issue about it. That falls under the “scarred for life” category.
HIDE being the keyword here. I’ve seen talk here of DELETING the songs and I assure you that would NOT BE COOL!
Parents delete my MP3s, I reformat the HD?:eek: :eek: :eek: