Discipline

I admit, I am a bit lax sometimes, much to my embarrassment. I have been working on manners, character, and overall good behavior as much as possible lately, so that I know I am doing my children a service by teaching them to respect God's Word, to respect others, and to learn when and what is appropriate during various situations. Then I went to Meijer today...

I left my children in the car with my mother so I could run in quickly. While rushing through the store, I see a ball whiz past me and bang into a display on the end of an aisle. Next, I see a little girl chase after the ball, find it, and kick it as hard as she could into the air, across several aisles. I am infuriated as I wondered who would be under the ball in that other aisle.

Next, I make my way to the back of the store where I find the tags I was looking for. I hear a loud CRASH! and I wonder to myself what the little angel was up to now. Sure enough, I hear the same flip-flops running from the crash site. When I find the crash site, several items are scattered all over the floor and another lady was standing there with the same look on her face that I had, along with the same thoughts: What happened to discipline?!

If my little darlings dare to knock something over (which neeever happens--haha), I make them pick it up. Actually, they know they must pick it up without me telling them. If they dared to play with a ball in the store...well, let's just say they wouldn't be playing with a ball for the next decade or so.

All of this made me think of the Nightline edition on radical unschooling, the second to air a look at what is often deemed outrageous. I'll have to write more about that in the next post.