Cell Jail

Friday, February 22, 2008

I still have Megan's phone. Her grounding is, at this point, open-ended. But I have to admit... each day I keep the phone from her I feel a little sense of accomplishment. The same sense of accomplishment one might feel, I have to imagine, each day they go to the gym in a row. As if by keeping my word to take the phone away I am adding years to my life.

Normally, being my first-born and all, she would have manipulated me into reducing her punishment. She's very good at those kinds of things. It wouldn't have surprised me if she'd have found a way to get ME to apologize to HER and to take her for ice cream to make up for it. I can't explain my resolve this time except to say that I'm getting a quiet satisfaction out of not being coerced.

Plus, there's a hell-of-a-lot of homework getting done these days. You see, every day she makes a point to be very obvious about doing her homework. And she does it cooperatively, without the usual indignation and without waging the Math War she normally fights whenever I try to show her the correct way to solve for X.

Then, like a prisoner humbly requesting parole, she bats her eyelashes and asks, "Daddy? Will I definitely get my phone back on Monday?"

And my answer is always the same. "If you're make-up homework is done, maybe."

I know it's working and I know I like it but what I can't figure out is, is this motivating with the carrot or the stick?

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