I was a very forgetful child. In the heat of excitement for nearly anything, key details would slip from my mind. For instance, on more than one occasion, going to orchestra practice, I’d forgotten my cello. Nearly 15 years later, my mom still won’t let that one go.
Along those lines, I had a problem with remembering winter coats, even with the chilling reminder that cold brings. I’d wear them to school, but wouldn’t return wearing them. Even as I think about it, I don’t know how this happened. I sat through the cold on more than one occasion and still hadn’t learned my lesson.
After losing maybe my third coat (could’ve been more), my mom got sick of replacing them. On top of that, standing in the cold didn’t seem to cure my memory loss either, so she needed something a little more dramatic.
Therefore, she took me to the bank and had me withdraw the money from my account to replace my coat. My hard earned allowance gone, just like that.
I was forced to buy a coat using every dollar I had (my mom paid the sales tax). This made the sting overly personal. This trip to Famous-Barr left me with severely dented pockets, but I never found myself standing in the cold again.
When did you have your child pay to fix their mistake? How did it go? What did they learn? Did it fix a behavioral problem long-term?
-Brandon
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