October 15, 2021 - I challenge any of you readers who have grown children to do what I did recently. I asked my grown daughter what she considered to be the worst punishment that we meted out to her while a youngster. I was shocked at her answer, as this incident had drifted off to the far corners of my mind.
She reminded us that when she was around eight years old, and her younger brother was five, she was excited about going on a trick-or-treat excursion through our Bellaire, Texas neighborhood. It was 1966 and Halloween was drawing closer. We were never overly concerned about allowing the kids to go trick-or-treating as we always lagged behind them as protectors.
Our son, Doug, had done something amiss and I had scolded him. I then hit him with the ultimate threat – you cannot go trick-or-treating this year if you do that again. Well, being a five year old, and me being a man of my word, Doug did what he was not supposed to do on Halloween morning. So, back came the threat, you cannot go with your sister tonight and collect candy and other goodies. You will have to stay home and hand out the candy to others.
Evening drew near. Our daughter put on her costume. I felt really bad about imposing such a severe penalty on our son, so I told him that he could put on his costume, but he could not leave the house. By this time, I was feeling really bad. How could I have done such a thing to him, kept flashing through my mind.
Kay was allowed to go on the Halloween scavenger hunt and returned home with a large sack of goodies. Doug had none. I have never seen a sadder face on anyone, except maybe on a lost puppy.
She took her stash to her bedroom and promptly dumped it on her bed. Then she meticulously sorted through all of it and arranged the candies in categories. She then filled up several smaller sacks with the sorted candy and hid them in her chest of drawers.
Several days passed when Kay announced to us that all her stashed candy was gone. Only the paper wrappers were left in the bags. It seems that Doug had discovered her hiding place and had helped himself to the sweet treats. He had eaten all of her Halloween candy, leaving only wrappers.
Today she tells us that she was so mad at her brother for stealing and eating her candy. And to make matters worse, “you never even punished him for it..!” Gosh, even after so many years, she still gets angry over this incident. I felt so bad about Doug’s original punishment that I could not bring myself to punish him a second time. Should I have done so?
Now, I challenge you to ask your grown kids the same question I asked my daughter. You may be surprised at the answer.
