[quote]Chores are punishment now? I did chores my whole life and because of it i kearned the value of hard work. I took side jobs when i was young by mowing grass and tending the neighbor's horses. I helped put of fences and would run to town for older people and get their groceries for them. If not for the chores, who knows. I might have grown up thinking everything should be handed to me because i probably never would have understood the value of hard work and the rewards that came with it. My parents had enough to do from day to day so the least i could do was work around the house to help get things done. These chores i did help alleviate stress in my parents and helped lead to a happier home. My children will do chores and be told the reason for them. My children will learn the value of hard work. I will speak to them, just as my dad did, about life lessons and wrong from right. My father taught me discipline growing up and he did, in fact, spank me from time to time. He would explain what I did was wrong and the consequences that come with it. Sometimes these talks would last for hour. Im not kidding. I threatened a girl on the bus that i would cut off her head when i was 11 and i am NOT proud of that. Hell, i saw my dad for the first time in 3 years just a few weeks ago when i went up to visit. We sat in the hot tub drinkin non alcholohic beers and reminiscing about the days when i was but a young boy and he asked if I remembered what happened that day. I was kicked off the bus and my dad came and picked me up. Yes he was angry, but he did not spank me. Not yet. Angry spanking leads to abuse and he knew this because of what happened to him when he as younger. He did yell at me though. We got home and he told me he did not want to see me for at least two hours. I sat in that room waiting, knowing what was coming. He walked in the room after what seemed like was days. He came and sat beside me and told me with sadness in his eyes that I had let him down. He stood up and told me to stand up. I thought this was it. Instead he told me to come with him. We lived down the street from a city jail and we walked there. I never looked at him and he never looked at me. When we arrived he told me to sit on the bench and wait outside. Moments later a police officer walked out with him with a look of sadness as well. He told me to come see him and my dad also said the same. I walked inside while my dad waited outside and the officer began speaking to me while we walked to the place where the cells were. He said what i did was a crime. He explained that a threat was a serious thing and that i could end up in these cells one day. I remember there was a man sitting there in dirty clothes and i could smell alcohol. What i did not know at the time was that he was a man who had recieved a DWI later that morning and he just sat their. I remember he looked up at me and smiled. He asked me how i was doing then told me that the crimes we commit are not worth living your whole life behind the bars he was currently surrounded in. It scared the shit out of me. The officer took me back outside to my dad and we walked home. When we got back i went to my room with him and we talked for hours. I mean HOURS. It was midnight before i knew it. My dad did not want to spank me but he did eventually do it. It stung a little and when it was done i was so happy that it was the only thing i got. Did he have to spank me? I dont know. I am glad he did though. I learned a hard lesson the easy was that day and what my fathet did for me, i, my eyes, was nothing I could comprehend until i was older and living on my own. In short, I will spank my children, the same as my dad did. I will tell them what they did, i will show them the real world consequences of the action they commited, and then i will give them the discipline that i feel fits the wrong action (shy of abuse, mind you). Have a good day man. God bless.[/quote]