The Naughty Corner

Looks just like any other corner, right? Ah, yes, but if you ask Alex or Anna where the naughty corner is, they would both simultaneously show you this little spot in our dining room. Not too long ago we very nearly had someone in this corner almost continuously. Sort of like a cycle- Alex would get out, Anna would get sent in (mostly for taunting Alex for being in there in the first place), and on and on it went. I think it was probably a good 3 years (or at least it felt that long) where not even one day went by without someone in it at least once. A few days ago Anna commented "Mom, how come we don't ever use the naughty corner anymore and why doesn't Sarah ever have to go there?" This got me thinking....

When did we stop using sitting in a corner away from us as punishment?

• I think it was about the same time that going outside, playing with their friends and watching TV all became cooler than spending time with us. They still get in trouble, it's just that their currency is different now. To send Alex to the corner for 8 minutes will not have the same effect as grounding him to the house for a day. Although, to be honest, the whole grounding the kids to the house is really just a mean and cruel punishment on the parents. Not sure who came up with that idea, but stupidly we also enforce it around here....

Why don't we send Sarah to the corner?

• This one is tougher. It's certainly not because she doesn't ever get into trouble. Sarah IS trouble, plain and simple. The corner is still there, we still own a timer. Either we have become softer or we have realized that sending her to the corner for 2 minutes will most likely not make any difference and so why waste our time? Yep, she's the baby and she's gonna get away with it all :)

Why, out of some 5,000 pictures I have taken since Alex was born can I not find even one picture of anybody in the naughty corner?

•  Pondering this one I think it is because at the time we were sending them to the dreaded corner of shame, the last thing I wanted to do was take a picture and remember it. It's not that I don't have pictures of my kids crying, I certainly have my share of those. But absolutely none in the corner....weird, huh? I guess the only thing I can say about this is that when Alex and Anna are older and in psychotherapy for irrational fear of tight spaces and corners, I can deny all knowledge of how this could have developed :) After all, there is no proof, right?

Anybody else have a "time out" ritual like this?