“what’s the worst punishment you can remember as a kid?”

my kids asked me this recently. probably after receiving the naughty step or grounding.

so, I didn’t answer them truthfully. they are kids. they have no concept of some things.
so, I searched my brain for something tame and kid friendly…

“drinking dish soap”

they were horrified. oops, I guess that isn’t tame. I tried again.

“having spatula’s broken on my butt”

again, not a good choice.

“having my nail polish taken away?”

whew…that was met with horror. of a good kind.

My kids just aren’t ready for the hard stuff.
Now, my childhood is over. It’s done. and we have no intention of dragging anything out that is unhealthy.

But… we view our consumption of vast amounts of dish soap as funny.

If we said something inappropriate, sassed off, or any number of things we had to drink dish soap. of the liquid variety.
Lucky for me, it rarely happened.
Not so for my brothers.
It’s a wonder they ever got sick…that had to have had the cleanest mouths around!

And the number of spatula’s broken on my brothers behinds must be a record! (do they keep that sort of record)
It was funny.
See, you can only “spank” so hard with a cooking spatula. They often bend (sending us into giggles…NOT a good idea when you are supposed to be acting apologetic). They deliver hardly any pain (again…don’t EVER mention this) and best of all…
they break.
the little flippy end just flies right off!
So, you are in the middle of a whupping with a cooking spatula pretending to be in pain and whoooooppp there goes the spatula. You try not to giggle. It’s darn funny.
I had a brother that had so many spatulas broke on his behind that I think we started keeping a record. And he was proud that he held the title.

So, although my kids don’t understand the humor…we are able to find humor.
Clean mouths and broken spatulas.
the stuff are childhood was made of.