I gotta do it. I gotta be a better parent this year. A couple of weeks ago my daughter was practically begging me to be more attentive to her, especially in respect to discipline.
I did not see any need for discipline that evening. We had the house to ourselves for the evening. She had been curled up in the lounge chair most of the evening, working on one of a series of reports due in a couple of weeks. I was reading a book on the couch.
I guess she reached the end of editing the encyclopedia’s information for that report and needed another book from the set. She slid out of her cocoon of knowledge, walked across the room to the bookshelf and flopped in the rocking chair.
“I don’t feel like doing any more reports,” she sighed.
“Um-hmm. I know the feeling, but you will.”
“But I don’t want to,” she said, picking up the reference book.
I re-opened my book.
“Mom, make me do my homework.”
I eyeballed her. She had to be kidding.
She wasn’t. I shrugged. “OK, go do your homework.”
“Noooo. really make me do my homework.”
Sure, Miss Never Misses an Assignment needed me to ‘make her’ do her homework.
“So go do it.”
“Noooo, Mom punish me, if I don’t.”
I sighed and closed my book. My daughter is really missing having her brothers around to pester.
“OK.” I felt ridiculous. “If you don’t do your homework, I will take away your fish watching privileges.”
“Ooohh, Mom, really, that’s nothing.”
“You’re right,” I thought a minute. “OK, if you don’t star doing your homework right now, I am not going to let you go to your friend’s house for two whole year,” I said magnanimously.
“Ohhh, Mom, you know you would never follow through on that,” she giggled.
“OK, if you don’t go do your homework in the next 30 seconds, I will not let you visit her until after Christmas.”
Her face lit up, “Really?!”
“Yeah, really.” I picked up my book.
She sat in the chair looking quite gratified.
“And if you don’t get moving right now, I will add another week to the time.”
She looked at me amused.
“I’m serious,” I laughed.
She went back to the lounge chair. Before she happened her book, she studied my face. “You aren’t really going to do that, are you?”
“Yes, I am. You asked me to make you do the homework. You wanted me to discipline you if you didn’t. So I did. You can’t go over there until after Christmas. And if you don’t settle down right now, you won’t go until after the New Year.”
“All right!” she said gleefully and returned to her homework. So she is not going to her friend’s house. She went to school the next day and told her friend she could not come and visit and exactly why she couldn’t come. Her finished reports were done on time and looked fantastic.
I finished my book and tore a page out of her notebook to record my only New Year’s resolution: “This year I will make my daughter happier by giving her a lot more discipline.” As much fun as we both had that night, it ought to be a really happy new year for the both of us.