Several years ago our daughter decided to take the wrong bus home. Long story short, everyone went into panic mode. I called the principal (so he could look up the names of some of her friends parents and contact info) and my brother in law (because I was in st. Louis, not in our hometown and he was, and he's a cop), my husband, my father in law was called by someone not sure who anymore, plus my aunt and uncle who run the buses were trying to find her. Well we eventually found out that she took a different bus than her normal one because she wanted to sit with a friend. She knew this was wrong and even when the bus driver called her out on it, she said I can ride any bus, they all go out to aunt and uncles (she went to their house after school at the time). Well she WAS told this, but told in the context of if you miss your bus don't worry you can take any of them and make it to aunt and uncles. So yeah. She took that statement and made it into what she wanted. We were furious with her and made her write an apology to my aunt and uncle, her uncle, her grandpa, the principal, her normal driver and the other driver whose bus she got on, for wasting their time and lying to the drivers. Needless to say, she has not gotten on the wrong bus since (on accident or purpose).
A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to be creative with our son. He is 3 and can be quite destructive with his sister's belongings (she needs to stop leaving stuff lay but anyway). She had just gotten a weaving loom (you know the plastic ones used to make potholders) on Friday from my mom for her birthday that was coming up (sunday). On Sunday before everyone came over, our son threw the loom and a plastic peg broke off making it hard to weave the loops. So we made him take money out of his crayon bank to replace it. Now his bank is filled with change and grant it probably at least $10.00 worth but I am not that mean to the walmart cashier or my husband who was taking him to walmart so while he was unaware we hid a $10 bill in his bank. We opened the bank, made him get the money and explained he was going to walmart to replace the broken loom. So that's what he did. X and my husband went to wally world, got the loom and made him pay for it. He got home and had to give it to S and tell her sorry. Honestly I think I can say he has not thrown anything of hers since then. Not to say he has not found other ways to torture his older sister but he has not broken anything of hers since. Whether or not he understood the concept at 3 I am not sure but it was worth a try and probably better than anything else I could come up with. Timeout seems to be useless with him. We still do it, but not sure it does any good. half the time he falls asleep in timeout (even within the 3 min. timelimit) probably because he's usually very tired in the evening which prompts his less than stellar behavior.
So what's your creative parenting style?
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