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The Dartboard of Destiny

NCMilGal's picture

I'm trying something new. Or at least, I will be once I can convince the government that I'm trustworthy enough to keep my clearance AND move to Washington.

So. SD17 is your typical careless teenager, more interested in her friends than in chores, and a clutterbug besides. She's heading quickly toward being that college roommate that everybody hates and nobody wants to live with. DH is a neat freak. So when he walks in after a 13 hour day, no skid in sight, with shoes/books/dishes all over the living room, with the sink full of dishes and the dishwasher full (HER SOLE CHORE) he flips out. I mean, screaming, insulting, basically verbally abusive.

While I think we all agree that the kid's behavior is aggravating, his reaction is WAY TOO MUCH. So I'm trying to think of ways to punish her for being a careless dumbass that also are not over the top.

So I came up with The Dartboard of Destiny. A dartboard has 20 slots, right? So if I can figure out 20 things to take away/add on to chores, etc, I can make SD17 set her own punishment. She gets three darts - one for the punishment, one for duration, and the last is either a do-over or a wild chance... see, if she gets a bullseye, punishment cancelled. I figure that this keeps me from having to make up a punishment on the spot, we can always point out that if she were better at darts, she could PICK her punishment or even get out of it, and maybe we can have a little fun with it?

Here's what I've got so far:

1: Car (taken away - second dart is # of days)
2: Cash fine (second dart is number of $)
3: Deep cleaning the house (in 15 min increments so a max of 5 hours)
4: Pay chores (that we would normally pay for)
5: Writing sentences (in increments of 10)

And I'm stuck.

What are your ideas for things to take away or make her do? Silly songs that we can record? Taking the dogs out for runs? Picking up dog poop? Playing food delivery girl?

In all honesty, SD17 is a good teenager. If she weren't, we would be having very different conversations.

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NCMilGal's picture

And of course, now that I think about it... PT.

See, SD17 is 5'3" and over 200 lbs. She SAYS she wants to lose weight, but doesn't look too interested in it from my POV. So... squats (x5) burpees (x2) situps, miles (get a pedometer, grounded until we see that many miles)

Is physical "punishment" a bridge too far? That's what DH and I dealt with in the Army. I can tell you pushups changed my attitude pretty quickly.