The Thieving Child, Part 2

November 27, 2006

So here's how we handled our lying, stealing, etc. child. We enjoyed reading responses and were reassured that our parenting techniques fall into line with so many others'. (Yes, I really do think there should be an apostrophe there, because it should be others' parenting techniques.) ANYWAY. Duncan spent about 3 hours cleaning his room on a beautiful Saturday. (This included time spent cleaning out the register/duct.) He is not allowed to have candy or gum for 2 weeks, and he has to pay for the items that he took for the reward bag. This totals less than $4, but for a child who gets 50 cents/week in allowance, that's a lot of money. He spent the rest of the day helping his Daddy with chores. Probably more than anything, he endured a day of being emotionally separated from us. He knew we were angry and disappointed, and I hope that will be more of a lesson than anything else.

So hopefully Dad2Three won't be writing an article entitled "Where will Duncan pee next...."