Farmfresh
City Biddy
Did I raise you Abifae? So many kids I guess I forget.abifae said:i was lucky. my father understood the extremes of my logic. lol. he always gave why. and if that why was "i'm exhausted and if you piss me off i'm gonna beat the tar outta you"... well that's pretty clear! but normally there was a simple logic. "we're in public and you are ruining other people's enjoyment and you will therefore be removed". since we rarely went out, sitting in the car while the family ate in a restaurant and knowing you got bread and water at home was a GOOD threat. LOL.
growing up poor is healthier than growing up with too much. you learn what's important and how to plot.
Actually my hubby was the explainer. He was determined that a kid should always know the why and they were given the LONG answer to any question they ever had. For example, "Why is the grass green?" Would probably lead to a week long discussion and study about chlorophyll! Actually when you treat a kid like they have a brain and explain why a certain behavior is NOT OK they often surprise you. Sure there were a few, "Because I am tired of it"'s and some "Because I said so"'s, but very few.
We had a family style sit down restaurant near us when the kids were small called "Po Folks". Adult meals were reasonable and kid meals were only 99 cents! It was one restaurant we could sometimes afford with 3 kids under 8 years old. The restaurant was situated with big windows overlooking the parking lot.
One time we were seated in a booth and could look out the restaurant window at our car which was parked just outside. On this particular day my kid was deciding to try out some public disobedience and being a real brat. Hubby gave a warning and then followed through by taking her to the car. She went into her car seat and the doors were locked (window down on a cool day - she did live through childhood). He then went in sat down and WE finished our dinner in the restaurant while SHE sat in the car and watched us eat. AND NO she did not get a meal that time either. She lost that opportunity. That is a natural logical consequence. If you are unable to eat at the restaurant because of your behavior - you miss that meal. You won't starve to death. We DO eat several meals each day.
Today I am sure we would have been arrested for child endangerment! After that one of us would go in to the restaurant with the kids and get the seat while the other parked the car by the window. Each kid ended up making one trip to the car. After that we could take them ANYWHERE to eat and they always got compliments on their manners.