The Piper Cub set out a couple of moral principles over the past few weeks.
First, he asked if we could watch Men in Black together, the first one, since we’d just seen MiB3. Got to the part where the alien is about to land and possess the farmer played by Vince D’Onoforio. Scene is from the outside of the little farmhouse, and we hear D’Onoforio yelling angrily at his wife, complaining that the supper isn’t cooked, the house is messy, she’s not doing her chores, and so on. Cub got up, shut off the tv, and said “Men shouldn’t yell at their wives like that.” And he went off to bed.
Then, a week ago, he asked for his allowance to go to the convenience store to get some treats. I’m not keen on him spending all his allowance on junk food, but if he was prepared to walk all that way, I was prepared to give him half. Told him he could have the other half in a few days.
A few days later, I remembered I owed him the rest, so I put a fiver on the table and said, “Here’s the rest of your allowance, Cub.” He looked at it, looked at me, and pushed it back across the table. “I’m not entitled to that,” he said. “Sure you are,” I said. “Remember, you only got half on the weekend.” “Yes,” he said, “but a couple of days later I was shopping with Mom and she gave me the rest, so I’m not entitled to this.” I thanked him for being so honest and put the fiver back in my wallet.
You do all the normal parental nagging to get them to do their homework, get up in the morning, do stuff around the house - and then you get the reward, that your kid’s turning out good.