Adam@Home by Rob Harrell for June 30, 2024

soon it will be so

Notice that they never treat their mother like that. They know she’s no pushover, and they respect her for that. Adam is no Ward Cleaver or Andy Taylor; he’s more of a Chester Riley!

‘Switch?’ My granny used to send me out to the peach tree to ‘cut a switch’.Took me awhile to find one just dead enough to break on the third stroke-and not before. By then she was borderline laughing and I was home free.

People are generally absolutely on one side of other of this debate. Neither side is wrong if boundaries are set and reasonable consequences are enforced.My father needed just one swat on the behind with his hand, my mother threatened with the "spoon ". We were not afraid of our parents, but we learned the consequences of misbehavior. I don’t remember ever being on the receiving end but my older brother did and my sister once and we all turned out OK. And our parents are still honored in our memories.

While I could joke and tease my father, there were definite boundary lines I knew better than to cross. If I crossed them, I got into trouble.

Time to use the switch on Clayton?

& the pendulum continues to swing…

uh oh…go get the switch, Clayton!

True they are free spirits, but without the discipline it may not serve them well as adults.

Geez, what a thought kid……

Let me hold your head under the water for just a bit. “Old man my rear”.

However, other adults will find that considerably less charming.

It is possible to discipline your children with firm boundaries and consequences without losing control and teaching them that you can use violence to solve your problems. Now days, just taking away their electronics is enough of a disincentive to keep them behaving respectfully.

My grandfather made me get a switch once when I misbehaved. The whipping wasn’t the issue. It was the long walk out to the bush and back where you reconsidered your life choices. The walk was the brutal part….and the point.

My mom was the one who meted out punishment. She had a stick (the cross bar from a wooden clothes hanger. All she had to do was say she was going to get the stick out and we toed the line. Dad hit one of us once with the stick and broke it in half. Mom went after him with the pieces.

Who remembers the ‘Switch Dance’?

Nonsense, the Nintendo Switch was only invented in 2017