My turn on the naughty step aged 37 years and 3/4

The experts are telling us we are the softest generation of parents that has ever been. In the Victorian day, the cane existed at school for naughty Children, and I have heard stories of three generations ago them being locked in cold cellars when they were naughty. Today we have the naughty step!

I am guilty of being soft too! Our Children are emotionally intelligent enough to know where to push our buttons. If they want something they do not stop until they get it and then we are faced with the option of ruin the entire day or give in. The later is the easier option in the short term.

Yesterday, I took my Children and my Niece swimming. You go to all the effort of packing the bag getting the kids ready, dragging the heavy bag to the pool, the kids are unbearably excited, and then my niece did not have a pair of goggles and had a mini tantrum. You are then wondering why you bothered to go to all the effort of giving the Children a fun time. My fabulous Sister-in-law first of all said no and then realised that it would ruin the entire day, gave in and got the goggles. She is an incredibly astute intelligent, and successful lady and put it aptly, “I am time poor, so when I get time to spend with my Daughter, it is not worth it to me to be ruined over a £3.99 pair of goggles,”. I had not thought of this before and realised she has a valid point. Is the fact that we are time poor and the general fast pace of life the reason why we give into them so easily.

Our generation does appear to have an inability to say no to our Children, I have witnessed it with friends too. I am not declaring that I have the answers as I am just as bad as everyone else. Our only form of punishment thanks to Super Nanny is the naughty step. Our Nanny state says that “thou shall not smack thy Child”, as it is a heinous crime, punishable by other people angrily glaring at you.

I thought I would give the naughty step ago, to my calculation I would have to stay on it for 37 minutes, as it is one minute for every year of your life. I use the first step on my stairs. I sat there for the entire time and it is really boring, time stands still and it feels like you are on there for longer, more like a few hours, it did feel like a punishment. In future if my Husband is naughty I might put him on it!