NOT very long ago, you could impose the ultimate sanction on a child or teenager who was displaying bad behaviour by saying in a stern voice: Go to your room.
The room in question would become, in effect, a prison with personal freedoms removed and no stimulus within the silence of four walls.
Not any more.
These days being sent to their room would be no punishment at all, as it probably comes equipped with TV, music, games machine, personal computer, books and magazines.
Personal freedoms?
All intact, thank you very much.
These days one sanction would be to ban them from their rooms.
“Right, you're staying downstairs and you can sit there and watch TV and say and do nothing for four hours, like us, and see how you like being a grown up.”
Or, there is the new ultimate sanction: you could take away their mobile phone.
This might be painful and messy, as many are born with them and have them attached by an umbilical cord.
Without them they may suffer hysteria, self doubt, nervous breakdown and loss of identity. Without Macca or Shiv or Peetie calling them to remind them of their name and position in the hierarchy of their own social order, they will risk becoming non-persons.
“Have you heard? Dixie hasn’t got a moby anymore.”
“Tragic.”
The withdrawal of a mobile phone for an hour could be traumatic, for a full evening it could be life changing. So do not take this decision lightly if you are unprepared for the possibility that it may turn your child into a psychotic monster.
In fact, if all you really want is peace and quiet away from their bad behaviour, just send them to their room.
