Do NOT overdo your punishments
When I was a kid, I seldom get punished. It’s not that I did not do anything wrong because believe me, I was a really mean kid back then. There was this one time when my mom got the better of me.
I was in a fight with another kid in the neighborhood and my mom shouted at me in public saying that "there will be consequences!". That got me scared. People looked at me as if they are already feeling sorry for what is going to happen to me. Over the next few years, whenever I do something inappropriate, she would say, "consequences!" in a firm way. If that didn’t get into my nerve and I continue being a pain in the neck, she has all the time in the world to think of the best punishment. Sometimes, she would even ask me what punishment I think would suit best.
Now that I got a kid of my own, I get to give the punishments but when I asked what kind of punishment he thinks is best for him, it is amazing that he could come up with pretty fair punishments. I was even thinking that my kid could possibly be a judge someday.
