Ella Scott
Facebook users have praised a list a parent has used to teach their child a lesson after they were grounded.
Earlier this week, a picture of a notice printed on an A4 piece of paper was uploaded to the popular parenting Facebook page, Kidspot.
The note opened: “Congratulations! You Got Grounded!!! To get ungrounded you must earn 500 points.”
Advert
After stipulating that the unknown child’s grounding offence was ‘for playing on their phone after bedtime’ a strong list of sixteen household chores followed.
The first suggestion for the kid to earn 10 points was to ‘write a nice letter to someone in the family’.
50 points could then be added to the grand total if they prepared and cooked dinner, and a further 100 points could be claimed if the young one completed a load of laundry.
Elsewhere on the list, suggestions such as cleaning kitchen counters, watering house plants, and dusting down the living room were also presented.
If the grounded child was to complete each task once - including washing one window and cleaning out one kitchen cupboard - they would earn 500 points and thus be allowed back out to play.
Since Kidspot posted the picture on social media, parents have been having their say in the comments section.
One Facebook user said: “I did this 7 years ago and it worked to well.”
“They'd be doing all of that in one day! But man the house would look amazing,” said a second while another joked: “I'd rather be grounded.”
“This is absolute genius when I have my kids this is what I’m definitely going to do if they disobey me in any way,” said a further user.
However, a fifth commenter wasn’t too impressed with the list of chores.
They wrote: “I mean, I get it - but I also don’t want to teach my child that taking care of a house and contributing to a living situation is something to dread and you’re forced to do it when you’re naughty.
“I feel like if you force them to do it, they’re actively going to avoid doing it when (sic) they do behave well. If the kid was playing on the phone after bedtime, the consequence can be that they don’t get to keep their phone once it’s bedtime, for however long?”
They also said that instead of punishing the child for being on their phone, perhaps the parents could switch out the mobile device for a story instead.
“Or ‘I see you’re not tired even though it’s bedtime. You can read a book with your lamp on for half an hour instead’. So the blue light isn’t upsetting their body’s signals for bed, and they can unwind with a low-key activity that will make them drowsy.”
Another tech-savvy Facebook user came up with another solution to stop the child using their phone at bedtime.
They wrote: “I have an app that turns my child's devices off at bedtime. A simple explanation to the children that (sic) it’s good to have downtime before bed. Sorted.”