Journal #5

A "fair punishment" is very hard to give a concrete definition of.  There are so many variables that could effect a punishment that it's hard to say what is fair and what is not.  In the twenty first century I'd say grounding from electronics is definitely a fair and efficient way of going about it.  The fear of losing ones telephone or computer or car or whatever is very good motivation.  If you threaten a child's social life, they are extremely apt to stay in line.  Now that we have defined WHAT should be taken away, now is the situation of how long.  First it depends on how serious the infraction was.  That also depends on the parent figure and their opinions on what is so called serious and what is not.  A typical parent would consider breaking curfew a serious enough infraction of the rules.  Say your curfew is eleven o'clock and you roll in around eleven thirty.  If the child was to alert the parent of the situation and that they would not be making curfew but were doing there best to make home as fast as possible but still in one piece, I would imagine a parent would be much more forgiving.  Now if the child simply rolls in around eleven twelve with no explanation what so ever, I'd say the punishment would be in a more serious category.  As a parental figure I would either veto their car privileges for the following social outing they had planned, or cell phone privileges for a period of time.  I would, however, be absolutely positive they always had a way of contacting me and making sure they could communicate if necessary.  I would probably take the phone for a few days in order to drive the point home that I am their parent and therefore need to know their were abouts at all times, no matter what their excuse was.  If they aren't going to use their phone for the actual cause, letting me know their were abouts, then they get no phone at all.