Pumishment...Backfired

Ever decide to punish a child and have it backfire on you? The other day we were all in the car. Lately our car seems to have many bags of dry cereal in it. We tend to eat breakfast in the car every once in awhile, but lately it has seemed like more than that.

So Kyle found a bag and started eating it. We had just eaten lunch and I hate when they ask for food right after I have provided them with a, ahem, nutritious meal (I think we had gone to McDonald's that day). So I told him to put the bag away. Well, he proceeded to throw it toward the front of the car.

We were almost home, so I held off on the punishment until we got there. I then put Zachary down for a nap and handed Kyle bowl. I told him that I wanted every cheerio picked up and that for every one that I found in the van when he was finished, I was going to add one extra minute of quiet time. My van needed some cleaning out of the cheerios that we had spilled over the last few weeks anyway. I then put Jacob in his room for his quiet time.

After about 20 minutes, I went back out to check on Kyle's progress. Well, there were just a few cheerios that I found and I was even willing to let those go and just start his quiet time. I decided to check in the trunk, behind their seats in the van.

As I opened the trunk, I found that he had taken the rest of the bag of cheerios and dumped it all over the back of the van. I put him straight to work picking all of them up.

Anyway, about another 20 minutes passed and I went back out to check on him. I found that he had thrown a bunch of the cheerios on the driveway and grass and then was standing in the van grinding the rest of the cheerios into the carpet.

At that point in time, I just sent him to quiet time. Jacob was already coming down. Kyle didn't come down until dinner time. And I spent about 10 minutes vaccuuming out the van.

So, I guess this punishment backfired on me. I was the one who ended up doing the cleaning and Kyle doesn't seem fazed by the whole experience. I guess we'll try again!
B