Day 30 – Punishment?

So when boys don’t listen to me and obviously don’t respond to yelling (Lukie actually laughing at me when I get frustrated enough to yell), what am I supposed to do as punishment?  Take away something right?  Well what do you take away from 4 and 6 year old boys that will make an impression?  I could take away screen time - the whole 30 minutes a day that they watch something on TV and/or play computer games, but who really would I be punishing?  It means that 30 minutes of calm and quite I currently use to do the dishes or carry on a short uninterrupted conversation with hubby would be gone.  The thought makes me want to cry.

 

Corporal punishment is not socially expectable these days (in most states at least) and boys are too smart to be scared by empty threats of same.  I tired the sending to their rooms thing yesterday and that did not work out so well (see Day 29 where Lukie pennies himself in).  I could take away an upcoming play date, but Lukie doesn’t really have any and Samson would rather play with us most of the time anyway.  I could take away desert, but we usually don’t have eat it and it I took it from boys that just means I would eat it after they went to bed and have to run further the next day.  I could take away a favorite toy, but inevitably when that toy has been taken away for say 5-6 days in a row it will no longer be the favorite and mean nothing to have it taken away yet again.  I could add to their chore lists, but chores are supposed to be done because they are part of the family and not as punishment.   Seriously, what am I to do with these two?

I did read an interesting idea about trying to go one day without responding to negative behavior and only comment/praise good behavior.  Would like to try it, however fear after this little experiment one of the boys would be seriously injured and/or house might not still be standing.  Guess I was such a good kid nobody ever had to punish me.