Staying The Course

Have you ever punished a child only to forget a day or two later that you did it? It seems like this has been happening to me more and more lately. Unfortunately, I have a couple teenagers who, once in a while, will take advantage of the fact that I forget. Sometimes on purpose, but other times because they've forgotten too.

Last week I grounded my #2 son from the computer for a week. A couple of days later he comes up to me and says, "Mom can I get on the computer? I have all my chores done." I give my permission and go on about my business. A good deal of time passes and I notice that he's still sitting at the computer doing his thing. I politely tell him he needs to shut it down and get busy with other things. He says, "OK." Again, I walk away to continue my business. Several minutes go by, and just as I suspect, there he is still planted firmly in front of the PC. All of a sudden the light bulb goes off in my head and I remember that I had grounded him two days before precisely because he wouldn't get off the computer when I asked him to.

At this point I'm clearly upset. Firstly, at myself, for not remembering that I punished him. Secondly, because he asked my permission. And thirdly, because this seems to be a repeated offense with him. (Not doing what he's asked when he's asked). It was then that I decided that I needed to write his punishment on the calendar so that I wouldn't forget.

This boy has not given up trying to get me to shorten his punishment though. Every once in a while he will approach me to see if he can use the computer to work on this project or that project, but so far, I've stood firm and have even had to go so far as to include an addendum. I told him that for every time he asks to use the PC, an extra day will be tacked on to his sentence. So far, so good.