10 funny but very effective "punishments" for naughty children

Using a little creativity, you can set up punishments that are both educational and humorous, full of love and show patience towards your child.

Author Lisa Whelchel suggests and compiles some ideas from readers on the page.iMomfor you to apply flexibly depending on circumstances and conditions.

1. When your child screams and cries uncontrollably, ask him to go into his room, not to come out, and continue crying for 10 minutes. That is a very long time for children, and they will not be happy when their parents tell them to cry.

Another way to handle a tantrum is to say, “What you’re doing is too disruptive to this house. You can continue in the backyard. When you’re done crying, you’re welcome back.” Without an audience, the tantrum goes away.

2. If your child often slams doors when angry, you might say, “You obviously don’t know how to close the door properly. To learn this, open and close the door calmly 100 times.”

3. If your child tends to do homework sloppily, get a few pages of handwriting practice paper and ask, “Which takes more time: doing this carefully in 15 minutes or rushing for 10 minutes and having to do it again plus writing a page of good handwriting practice?”

Similarly, if your child cleans the floor in a perfunctory manner, ask him to do it 3-4 times because the first time was not good enough.

4. If your child often makes a mess all over the house, you can get a box, label it “rainy day” and put the toys that your child refuses to clean up in it, only on rainy days your child can take them out to play. This also helps make old items seem new to your child.

You can also simply place the toy somewhere out of reach but within sight for a predetermined number of days. This punishment helps the child remember the forbidden toy and self-regulates his behavior. More simply, you put the toy in the cupboard, ask your child to do a chore around the house before taking it out.

5. Next time your child “forgets” to put away his/her game console, take it away for him/her but don’t tell him/her where it is. If he/she wants to know where it is, he/she will have to go and find it himself/herself. This will make him/her feel the hassle and will help him/her develop the habit of putting things away on his/her own.

Illustration: Internet

6. If your child is overly aggressive, choose a secret word and use it to remind him to stop a certain behavior without embarrassing him. For example, whenever Tucker gets too loud at play, Lisa Whelchel yells, “Hey, Batman!” He’ll know to calm down before you resort to more drastic measures.

7. To help your child learn to focus on completing a task, you can set a timer and say: “I’m setting a timer. I want you to clean your room (or put your shoes away, or finish eating) in 15 minutes. If you don’t finish, your punishment is…”.

8. If two children in the house often argue and are stressed with each other, you should put both of them in an oversized T-shirt for a certain period of time. When they want to do something, they will have to do it together and learn to coordinate well.

9. A father assigned his son to clean up the trash and dog poop in the backyard every morning. The boy was not very enthusiastic about the task, so the father came up with a creative solution: After the task was done, the boy would have to run around the yard barefoot. Since then, their family's lawn has been spotless.

10. A mother had a child who was very lazy to read. Every time the second grader made a mistake, her mother made her go to the library, pick a book with 100 pages or more, and read it. By the end of the school year, she became the one who read the most books in the class and gradually stopped hating books.