For most of our childrens' lives, my husband and I have tried to hand out punishment that fits the crime.  For example, when a child would stay up all night watching television after we told the child to turn the television off and go to sleep, we would remove the television from the child's bedroom.   This little bit of information will make more sense to you later on in this story.

My youngest son (15 1/2 years old) misbehaved at a baseball game and was asked to leave the dugout by the coach (dad).  The boy leaves the dugout and goes home.  We racked our brains out to try to find a suitable punishment.  Now, by this time, this young boy has learned how to get around any punishment we have handed down.  For instance, if we took the television away, he would read all night.  I'm sure by now you get the idea.

Anyway, we had just bought the game "Diablo" and this young man was itching to play the game.  We decided that by not allowing him to play the game, it would show our great displeasure at his behavior.  This punishment nearly killed him.  He followed me around every minute trying to  persuade me to allow him to play the computer.  In reality, it was dad who passed down the punishment, not me.  After I patiently explained that I could not "undo" any grounding his father administered, he tried to convince me how his dad would "undo" or "ignore" the groundings I had bestowed.  I continued to explain how when one parent grounds, the other one is not allowed to "undo" the grounding.  After trying this argument, the young man decided to let me know that the "punishment" did not fit the "crime."  He was right, of course.  However, I explained that no other punishment seemed to work with him.

The following day I get a phone call at work from this boy asking if he could play the computer.  I told him no and went into all the reasons why not from the previous night.  Approximately one half hour later this young man calls me up with agitation in his voice telling me his older brother took "Diablo" out to his room to play, and it wasn't his game!  I tried to patiently explain that while the game did not belong to his older brother, he could play the game.  The young man started screaming in my ear that he took the game out of the system while he was playing.  DING DING DING .... To which I replied, "Wait a minute!  Did you say he took the CD out of the computer while you were playing?"  Without missing a beat, he replied "yes."

 At this point, I had to laugh.  I asked to speak to his older brother.  I asked the older brother if this story was true.  He admitted it was.  I asked him to please be more careful with my equipment and software and then asked to speak to his brother again.

I again asked, in disbelief, if he had been playing on the computer.  He blatantly admitted the crime, without even pausing to think of an excuse, still holding on to the adage that the punishment didn't fit the crime.  Now, at this point, I was in  tears laughing thinking that my son either had to be 1) completely stupid for admitting this, or  2) he was a hardened criminal in the making, or 3) he needed some attention.  I decided it was a mixture of choices 1 and 3.  Since that time, though, I have come to the conclusion that it was none of the above, that the young man is just a tad spoiled and will find ANY way to get his own way.

How does this story end?  Well, the young man is allowed back on the computer again, but only after apologizing to coach for his behavior, and admitting he had gone overboard.
 

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