Lion wants me to punish him whenever he steps out of line, no matter how small the infraction is. I joked that I’d never have time to do anything else. If he wants even the smallest annoyance noted, I may not be far off. Consider this: something as small as asking me to turn on the fan just after I’ve walked past it and sat down can be an annoyance. Do I whomp him for that? What if he says he didn’t hear me even though he acknowledged hearing me? Whomp or not? I don’t think I should punish him for every little thing. There has to be some discretion.
What if I wait till the straw that breaks the camel’s back? Then I could list off the prior three, four, five, eighteen things he did that led up to this flurry of swats. The other problem I see is that I’m more likely to get annoyed when I’m tired and/or sore. Do I really want to have to spank him then? According to Lion, delaying punishment lessens it. So, I can’t tell him I’m annoyed and he’ll be spanked tomorrow. I have to do it closer to the infraction.
If I’m doing swats for each individual infraction, am I still doing a full punishment? I don’t see how I can’t. Anything less won’t have the same impact, no pun intended. Then what happens if I’ve punished him at 3 pm on a Sunday and then he annoys me again at 8 pm? Do I whomp him again? This could get out of hand very quickly.
Clearly there’s more to figure out than just waving a magic wand and making it so. Or maybe I’m making it more difficult than it has to be. We have to come up with some sort of compromise. I’m not looking for a second full time job.
Guilty – get punished.