Lessons from Chickens

Here's an age-old question: does grounding a kid punish the kid or the parent?

At the moment, I'm in the midst of a parental pummeling. I have a kid in an extended time out. In this house, the offense is eerily familiar. And today's perp is not new to this particular faux pas.

I read somewhere that it takes nineteen instances of a particular action to equal understanding, knowledge, and memory. Yet, instinctively, I know that this is episode number 1,237 of this particular offense. For this ONE kid, not all three kids.

I guess he's an uber learner. He REALLY wants to grasp this lesson, to the CORE of his being. That is about the only rational explanation for the fact that he re-executes this particular infraction over and over and over again. With punishment each time he's caught and/or I'm not too tired to react.

Yet, we're STILL learning.

And I don't know how much longer I can stand time outs and groundings.

Which really gives me extreme empathy for God. I deal with three kids; he deals with billions. And, I'm one of his petulant little creations who has to learn lessons more than nineteen times to truly get it.

Oh dear. I can hear my Mother now: "Looks like the chickens came home to roost."

Well cock-a-doodle-frickin'-doo.