I'm sorry that you wanted to spank me!

Disclaimer: this is not about disciplining children or whether spanking is an effective method.

So we are preparing to move. Amy is at home still in recovery from Samuel's birth. She would like to organise the house while I am still at work, yet some of the older children feel that it is their duty to play with their friends that they shall never see again as often as possible.

So when I returned from work the plan was I do some cleaning while Amy prepares dinner. I went to the basement and started to clean. Time was not a worry and I was well into a task when I was called up for dinner.

I can get cranky over certain things, (which is why I have these things happen frequently, to teach me control) like being prematurely taken away from tasks that I am super focused on, or children not wanting to eat meals, yet will devour any form of junk that is within a mile of the table three seconds after saying I am full I don't need supper.

I come upstairs and the meal is cooked and Amy may have been dealing with a wee one. So I decide to dish out the food. Get me eight bowls and serve out the stew. Luella takes a look at her bowl and proceeds towards the garbage with it. I interceed to stop the tragic loss of this well prepared dish. This now becomes a power struggle between 40 year old parent and 4 year old child, I move the bowl to the center of the table and go to gather spoons to civilly eat with. Luella plays the Daddy is out of the room I will climb on the table and dump my food gambit. I return to the dinning room to find that one of the bowls are empty. I play the your bowl is empty and you disobeyed Daddy card and send her to her room. Mommy intervenes and Daddies ability to disipline is thwarted liked the vader he is.

I banish myself to the basement to finish the job I started. Luella comes down, "Daddy we have to talk"

"What do you want to say?"

"I am sorry"

"Why are you sorry?"

"Daddy, I am sorry for making you want to spank me."

Now in no way I felt that I wanted to spank her for wasting her food. I felt that going to bed without dinner or having her eat out of the garbage were more fitting punishments. Sometimes justice is left unsatisfied.