That would be torture! Having your phone and NOT having it usable. Just looking at it every time you wanted to use it would remind you of your crime. I like this wicked little discipline. For me it would be very effective. :) :)
My oldest son has a inactive phone. (I do not pay my kids cell phone bills....if they want a phone it is their bill) But it connects to the WIFI anywhere and acts just as if he has a active phone)
This post was edited by my2cents at October 9, 2019 11:06 PM MDT
She was a teenager in the days of "dumb phones". Taking the SIM was icing on the cake, she was also grounded - that's a conventional punishment. So friends' houses were also not an option, but she LIVED on that phone. Had smartphones been ubiquitous, the same effect could be achieved by changing the WiFi password. No SIM means no mobile internet either.
When my older daughter was in the smartass years she said something to me not acceptable. I told her and she made another comment. I took the cords off of her bedroom phone (which was her own line as well) and put them in my purse.
I was staying with my grandkids for a week a year or so ago. The older one and I had a problem because I wouldn't allow her to just exist with the damn thing in her hand. Her mother did not either, but her mom was out of town. The younger one would become hypnotized to his tablet; when I would talk to him he wouldn't even hear me. I had to fight, and I do mean fight, to take it away from him but his tablet and his sister's phone went into the trunk of my car until their mother got home. We had a ball the rest of the week. Kids do not need those devices at their disposal.
MIne was simple. My oldest two had daily chores anything extra was a payable job. If there was an infraction they had to pay me out of their savings. Bad grades their pay rate went down, good grades pay rate went up.
They are now 26 & 29. Both graduated University debt free, I did give them some help if grades were good. Both had Full Ride Academic Scholarships. Both graduated with STEM degrees, no pay or help for soft degrees; English, Psych etc. Both are employed and successfully married to peers who are employed, graduated etc.
The two youngest are now entering that phase of their lives
I would like to add what I felt and to this day think, the most unfair punishment that I received. I'm not sure if it falls under unconventional. It might be, perhaps, that I feel it unfair because it was given to me.
Whatever the case, after reading your answers, none of you had done it. For this reason, I think all of you did well with administering the appropriate actions for your children's punishments.
Not to go into the gory details that really surrounded this topic, I will cut to the chase. I got caught with a friend of mine who was shoplifting at Nordstroms. I was carrying the bag she had snuck a pair of shoes in. The police let me go and she received more punishments. They just called my parents. My mom and dad were so freaked out that I would even be close to any such felony they took my horses away.
They took away the one sport I loved more than life itself. The ONE thing that got me through many adolescent growing agonies and my dream. I could no longer ride horses competitively or for enjoyment. I was DONE.
That ONE and only one punishment changed the dynamics of our relationship for the rest of our lives.
We have since healed but it took a long time. A lot of very painful years and a lot of growth.
They admitted they were out of control and have apologized profusely for being so crass and strict. It also took me a long to forgive. Luckily, we all did.
All I can say, is never take away a childs/teens dream. The outcome will probably be much more devastating than you ever imagined to All parties involved.
This post was edited by Merlin at October 13, 2019 1:13 PM MDT
And reading was something that relaxed, excited, and you enjoyed? And reading got your through many a day and an escape that was innocent and not hurting anyone but making you smarter and helping develop your mind's eye?
Why? Why take away something that is helping you develop?! BAD! BAD! BAD! Who knows where you could have gone with the abilities you learned? GRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Randy D 