When Son2 was little, I was his Cub Scout den mother.
The den consisted of about ten boys.
One of the boys was, how shall I put this kindly...... challenging. He was a good kid at heart, but came from a broken home. He had a step-father who tried to discipline him, but his mother was very lenient with him (I suspect because of the divorce.) Add to that, the fact that he was slightly ADHD.
He was NEVER still. He ran, he jumped, he skipped, he squirmed, he was always interrupting and always had his nose in whatever it was I was doing.
At one of the meetings we were making homemade ice cream and I was totally out of patience with him. He kept leaning in to see what I was doing and interrupting me, so with wooden spoon in hand……..I whacked him on the forehead.
Yup, I lost it and thumped him!
(Not hard, mind you, but enough to get his attention!)
I have to say, it shut him up fast. He sat quietly for the rest of the meeting.
But I was in agony!
I felt so guilty!
I don’t believe in resorting to physical violence, and on a kid no less! And not even my OWN kid!
The next day I went to his house.
And apologized.
Profusely.
This has become one of those ‘family stories’ the boys love to retell to all their friends with great delight and much comic detail!
And to illustrate it they bring out the original wooden spoon!
I’m thinking I should have it framed, because surely someday it will become a priceless and sought after heirloom! LOL
Yes I agree it could end up an heirloom - or Evidence!...get rid quick..LOL. And just to settle your sole, he got off lightly with you, he would still hear my shouting ringing in his ears if it had been me!
ReplyDeleteFraming won't do that spoon justice. It needs to be gilded! (-;
ReplyDeleteROFLOL! This is funny. I didn't use a wooden spoon but did use a wooden paint stirring stick on my kids a few times. It stung but couldn't hurt them really and once they were of an age to understand what we were telling them and why, it wasn't needed anymore. I'm sure you shocked the boy more than anything and kids do respond when they realize someone is serious about their behavior. I'd say the boy learned that while his parents might go overboard one way or another, the rest of the world will take so much but no more and that was a good thing to learn. You might have saved him from being a delinquent later on!
ReplyDeleteOh I could see that happening, my son had a friend who was never still, always into everything. I can understand you using the spoon ;-) Love how our adult kids tell these stories about their mothers. Mine do it too and with such big grins on their faces ;-)
ReplyDeletelol lol!! Great story. I would have done the same thing but I probobly would not have apologized. We'd be jailed if we did that to a kid today. Wonder how that kid is today.
ReplyDeleteHey, I wouldn't knock something that worked that well, lol!! He wanted your attention, & he got it :-)
ReplyDeleteLove your sense of humor in the way you tell these stories :-)
Ah yes, kids are great ;)
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