John came home from work the other day and shared something interesting with me. His boss, Randy, told him about his method of discipline with his kids. Randy has like 5 kids, I think, and he's disciplined them this way from the beginning. It was the way his dad disciplined him and all of his siblings as well. He told John, "It's the weirdest thing, but it really works!" What he does is give them a bowl of ice cream and sits down with them and talks with them while they eat it! For example, he caught his son playing Nintendo when he was supposed to be in bed and he called his name and said, come and get some ice cream. His son, knowing he'd been caught, says, "oookaaaay," in a melancholy tone. He still receives a punishment of not being able to play his Nintendo for the rest of the week. Or when his daughter wouldn't eat her dinner... time for some ice cream! "Oooookaaaay..." He made her eat three whole scoops while he talked with her and afterwards she went back to the table and finished off the rest of her plate. Randy said that he feels like because of the way his dad disciplined him, they have a really close relationship now. I can see how that would be... who wouldn't love someone who frequently offers ice cream!?
So at first when John shared this with me, I thought it was really twisted. My first thought was that making my kid eat ice cream when he's in trouble is only going to reinforce bad behavior! But after thinking about it for a while, I began to see another side of it. The idea is kind of growing on me. For one thing, I think there's always a tendency to justify ourselves a little, even when we know we did something wrong and to maybe be a little resentful if we are reprimanded for it harshly. But I think it would be rather difficult to feel resentment when being punished if I was being given ice cream instead of a screaming. Another thing, is it just offers a good opportunity to really sit down and have a loving talk with your child about what they did and why they chose to do so. The kid is always going to know that their parents love them.
So although it's the strangest punishment I've ever heard of, John and I are probably going to give it a try. It seems to really work for Randy, and it seems to have worked really well for his dad too. Who knows!
Fireworks
7 years ago
5 wonderful people have this to say:
Wow! Very interesting. I think I like it. Like you at first I was thinking it would only promit the bad behavior...interesting, i think I might try this out sometime. Thanks for the idea ;)
Yeah, that does seem like a weird idea at first. I think I'd be most worried about my kids eating too much ice cream! But if you try it, let me know how it goes!!
hehe ... the line I liked best was, "ice cream instead of a screaming;" yeah, I think that's a pretty good thought. :)
Hey Linds! Love the idea; ask Randy if it works with a two year old!! ;) How's everything going with the pregnancy?
Oh so that's what I've been doing wrong. When my kids misbehave, or when I'm bored, I make them hold the frozen ice cream in their hands until it melts. I never thought about letting them eat it.
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