11.18.2003

Discipline and Punish

Today was the weekly madcap playgroup. A good, pure, yet interesting mom who for some reason likes us bad moms had her well-behaved yet still interesting daughter tell the rest of us how, at preschool that day, she had told her teachers that she was thankful for both her baby sister and her teachers! Little brown-noser.

Really, though, I view this child through slightly green-tinted glasses, as my report from Iz's teachers today was that our girl has resumed spitting. Jeez, could a mom be prouder? I wonder if one of my brothers has given her the low-down on hurling loogies for distance and profit. Maybe she's got a betting ring going on behind one of the train tables?

Our Iz is largely discipline-proof. But just recently I disovered a fabulous way to get her attention fast--the threat of reincarnation! We arrived at a discussion of that and the concept of karma through a series of mental stepping-stones regarding death and world religions, and as the discussion got more specific, she got more concerned.

"You mean, if I'm not a nice person, I might come back as a dung beetle?"
"Yes, but you'd have to be a pretty bad person for that to happen. You're a reasonably nice little girl; I don't see that happening to you."
"But I want to come back as a HUMAN!"
"Well, then, you'd best listen to your mommy and your teachers, don't you think? Only the best listeners come back as humans."
Large-eyed, pensive silence from the back seat.

Heh heh heh.

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