“If I miss-behave - she is going to tell my parents!”
My parents always told my teachers, in front of me, “if my boy acts up then whup him and send a note home so we can whup him too.”
Thing is, they meant it!
I never acted up because I knew what would happen. My momma and daddy didn’t play around when it came to whuppings.
My daughter in grade school stabbed a bully in the arm with a pencil. She was trying to “walk and talk” (leave him and tell a teacher) but he kept pestering her.
She saw a pencil on the floor, picked it up and stabbed him in the arm. He ran off crying with the pencil still in him.
The principal called us both in to talk to us in the presence of our daughter. We all agreed that what she did was not the right way to handle it.
The principal asked us what we were going to do about it.
“Well, I think we will go down to the ice cream store for a special treat.”
The Principal smiled. “I think that is a great idea.”
Unbeknownst to us, our daughter later wrote the bully a note saying how sorry she was, and explained how he had just made her so mad. We got a photo of it from the mother of the bully. (We knew her.) She knew her son deserved getting stabbed, but was also so thankful for our daughter’s note.
I saw the mom a couple of years ago. Her son is doing well with a good job, etc. Glad to hear of it.
I was a single Dad and raised 2 sons (now 26 and 24) on my own. At the beginning of the each school year we would have the “Parent Teacher Conference”. I always took a stack of cards with me with my phone number and email address on them. Teachers were told if there was a problem to call or email immediately, if needed. Quite effective.