[Just another Joe]

When my daughter was 17 years old she was sitting at the kitchen table with my wife eating a sandwich.
I happened to be walking by when she said something insulting to her mother.
I grabbed her by the hair at the nape of her neck, tilted her head back until she was looking directly into my eyes as I hovered over her, and told her that if she didn't apologise and promise me to never talk to her mother that way again she was going to be picking her teeth up off the floor along with picking herself up off the floor.

The shocked look in her eyes was matched by the ashamed look that came over her in the next couple of seconds.

She apologised to her mother, told me she was sorry, and nothing more was ever said about the situation.

Would I have done it? You bet I would have.
My children were raised to respect their elders, ESPECIALLY family elders, until they were given a GOOD reason to NOT respect them - I would have knocked her block off, and she knew it.

[gardengirl]

I have pinned my mouthy 17 year old with the same look and move!! LOL I didn’t have to follow thru either—the shock value of Mom losing her temper and posturing was enough. Children would be much easier to raise if we could put them on a leash and just yank them up short like a dog learning obedience! I say that tongue in cheek, of course.

[Marie]

Lately my son has been acting up in school. He's 14 and been "getting a bit big for his britches". Messing around in class, showing off for the girls, getting a bit lippy with the teachers.

About two weeks ago his father and I went to the school and met him in the principal's office. We told him, in no uncertain terms, that if he were disrespectful or disobedient or in trouble one more time this year, one of us would be coming to the school, bending him over the principal's desk and spanking his butt.

He's been *really* good since that day. (With the exception of a misplaced library book.) At home it's "Yes, ma'am" and "no, sir". He's not depressed. If anything he seems calmer and more loving. Weird, but he almost acts relieved.

The hard part was getting the principal to understand why we wanted to do what we were doing. He kept saying, "he's not that bad of a kid." I kept saying, "I want to keep it that way!" In the end we did get his unconditional support.