I was watching the Brady Bunch and Marcia plays Juliet but gets a swelled head and gets thrown out of the play and Mrs Brady agrees that Marcia should be thrown out for her own good.
This got me to thinking, to those SD’ers with children, what is the “meanest” thing that you ever did to you kid for his/her own good.
Obviously “mean” is in your opinion. Not having any kids of my own, I found it hard to punish the dog when I caught him sleeping on the bed, after all he was so cute, I imagine it must be really hard to be, “mean” to your own kid.
My daughter was 7 years old. She is a darling little girl. But, she went through a LONG phase where she lied about many things. We tried and tried to break her of this habit. Finally, I hit on the trick. She had 2 baby-dolls who were sacred to her (Meggie and Susie. They are SO special, that I am called Grandma by these babies. Well… one night I told Pandababy to bring Meggie and Susie to me at bedtime. She brought them, and I took them in my arms. I said to them “Meggie and Susie, you will have to sleep with Grandma and Grandpa tonight. Your Mommy is telling lies, and that is a bad habit. I don’t want my granddaughters learning this. Kiss your Mommy goodnight.” (it still almost brings tears to my eyes to write this.). Pandababy was in tears hearing this. She kissed her babies good night and gave them to me. Be guaranteed, the problem pretty much ended then and there. I have never had to do something so drastic since!
When my 4 year old refused to get into bed at her grandparent’s house on Thanksgiving, I put her in the car and started to drive her home. Here’s a thread about it.
I could make many, many posts in this thread, but the first thing that comes to mind is that once when Whatsit Jr. was about 4 years old, I served him his lunch and he threw some kind of giant fit about how he didn’t want to eat that, and I calmly picked up the plate and threw the entire contents into the trash.
This is not actually one of my prouder parenting moments, btw.
You know, these acts don’t seem all that ‘mean’ to me. Mean is, to me, doing something unpleasant specifically to hurt the other person. These acts are done with love and the child’s good in mind.
When my 3 YO daughter would throw tantrums I’d laugh at her and say things like “Oh please, you can do better than that, you’re not even stomping your feet!”
Of course this would make her more angry and I would just laugh harder.
It did work though, after a few episodes she figured out it wasn’t worth it.
Yeah, my niece had her first real tantrum at like age three, threw herself down on the floor and kicked and screamed. My sister just dropped to floor and copied her kick for scream. Never happened again.
I suppose it was the time my 3 year old son was acting up at his cousin’s birthday party. He would not calm down and play nicely, no matter what we did, so I simply packed him up and went home. He missed the rest of the party; no playing, no cake, no loot bag.
I felt bad about it, but I couldn’t think of anything else to do - we’d tried our usual bag of disciplinary tricks already.
My son had a habit of throwing tantrums before every single naptime and bedtime. The tantrums included throwing his animals across the room while shrieking at the top of his lungs, then sobbing inconsolably until he got them back. I admit that it was my fault - I was dumb enough to give them back a few times only to have them launched across the room again. Then I wised up and informed him calmly that the next time he threw the animals across the room, I would assume he didn’t want them and would give them to someone who did unless given a good reason not to. Of course, he did it again, so I quietly grabbed a bag, put all the animals he’d thrown inside it and took it outside. After screaming bloody murder for a while, he clammed up and came out of his room and asked very, very nicely if I would give them back to him. I told him that, to get them back, he’d need to go to sleep without a tantrum. He did, so I gave them back. It’s never happened again.
I haven’t done it yet, but I am this close to cutting my 8 yr old’s beautiful thick long hair. We discovered my little one has lice this week, and we were fortunate that my big girl managed to avoid it through pure dumb luck this time around (she has had it twice before.)
It’s the rule that she must put her hair in a ponytail and keep it like that all day - but she’s been taking it out the minute I turn my back. That was bad enough before this current lice situation, but she’s still doing it, knowing that it’s not allowed, especially now. Push is coming to shove, and I’ve told her that if she can’t take care of her hair, I will. Sigh. I never wanted to resort to this, but I can’t seem to get her to take the situation seriously.
Amateurs! Read the second story from my beloved bride [post=9171629]here.[/post]
Frankly, canceling Moon Unit’s birthday party was easy for me after what she’d done. It was mother and daughter who were in tears. But you do not treat my wife like that, even if you are my daughter. Kid’s lucky she’s alive.
We tried calling all the guests who RSVP’ed, but a few did not get the word about the cancellation. When kids came to the door, I got down to their level and explained that Moon Unit was being punished, and there would be no party. I gave them their goody bag, thanked them for coming, and was treated to the most amazing look of “ZOMG! Parents can do THAT!!! :eek:” as the kids and parents left.
I punish my kids so hard it improves other kids’ behavior!! <- Evil Daddy Grin ™
Something in that mess must have worked - Moon Unit behavior has been improving since. She’s a great kid! <- Proud Happy Daddy Grin ™
Called a firefighter friend of mine over to talk to our son after he and a friend almost burned down the house with matches and lighter fluid.
When it was over, both boys (aged 11) were in tears and green from the “8x10 colored glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one…”.
His Mom thought I overreacted, but I didn’t and don’t think I did.
[Barney] “Ya gotta nip it in the bud, Ang’!”[/Barney]
Not that I’d pretend to answer for somebody else, but it turns into a goddamned rat’s nest and then you have to brush it out and guess who’s in tears? Not fucking Mama, is who! Is that close?
Cut it all off and make life easier for you. When I was five or so, my mom took me to a department store salon to have my hair cut off because she was tired of it. I told the stylist that my daddy would be mad and she actually called my dad to make sure that both parents were okay with it before she started, because she’d dealt with furious dads before! Went to her until I went off to college and found out what a good haircut was.
My daughter was about 2-1/2 at the time, and I was pregnant with her brother…in July, in Georgia, in a house where I couldn’t control the airconditioning. She was into this hissy-fit thing about changing her clothes if she got the slightest bit of water on them. This had gone on for a week or two…the slightest drop of water and she needed to change. This particular day, she had already changed THREE times. I was not a happy mom, and I just…snapped. She’s standing there pitching a fit over one drop of water on the front of her shirt that will dry in about two seconds, and I went to the bathroom, filled up a cup with water and said, “You think it’s so terrible to have a drop of water on you? See how you like this!” And I dumped the whole cup over her head, soaking her. Actually, I may have thrown it on her…I can’t quite remember. I just know I was furious. She started crying, I told her she could now change into dry clothes, and I stomped away, totally ignoring her. She changed and came to me and said, “Mommy, I sorry” and we hugged and she never ever did that again. And neither did I.
Don’t mess with a hot, hugely pregnant woman in 100’ weather.
I finally asked her about this last year, to see if she had any memory of it, and she was amazed…she doesn’t remember that far back, even that kind of “trauma”.
So what do I win for being the meanest mom in the thread?
<- Evil Daddy Grin ™