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 Spare
the rod and spile the chile:
I
know I read it somewhere. I wonder if that applies to this case.
A mother who had reached the limits of her patience sent her
small child into the yard to get a switch. After a long stay,
the child returned crying and sobbed, “I twied and I twied to
weach a switch, but they are too high. Here is a wock you
can frow at me.”
As
all parents know, discipline must be tailored to the child and
the situation, and that can be quite a problem. I once knew a
father whose arms were paralyzed and hung useless at his sides.
His family had to feed and dress him. To sit in a chair he had
to swing his arms aside with a motion of his shoulders. He often
fell, and with no arms to protect himself, he learned to twist
his body to take the fall on his shoulder or head. If you were
going to pity him you had to do it quickly, for even on casual
acquaintance you realized this man was something special.
He
was a Christian, and raised a “Christian” family. He had a
marvelous sense of humor and could laugh at himself with the
same relish he displayed in kidding others. Church members often
put his hat on his head at some crazy angle, knowing he
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couldn’t readjust it. Sick joke? Well, not
to bro. Lon Stewart. He could carry his head with a dignity that
made all proud of him, and his laugh would disarm the prankster.
But
I started all this to tell you his way of administering
disciplinary punishment to his husky boys. I never saw them get
out of line while I was in his well-run house (and I’ll
interrupt my story to compliment his good wife) but I am told
that when all else failed, he could pat those boys on the back
in a most effective way. He would order them to turn and stand
so he could plant his number eleven in the seat of their
britches. And they stood, and he kicked!!
Paint
a mental picture of that. It is the funniest, and the most
sobering story on discipline I have ever heard. Before you
can fully enjoy your laugh you realize that the real
discipline took place long before the kicking. It was the respect
he had gendered, by teaching and example, so the boys would
stand and take it when they knew they had it coming. I don’t
know where the boys are now, but my guess is that they still
respect and revere the memory of their father.
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