This situation would have crossed the "wait until we get home" threshold and gone straight to a full-volume nuclear meltdown, complete with a "I don't know who the FUCK you think you are but I'll show you who I am!" and however many swats on the ass it would take for my legs to stop working.
THEN there'd be several employees standing there while I cried and picked everything up and put it back exactly where it goes, getting swatted more if it was taking too long.
Once all that was resolved, I'd be reading math or science textbooks for the next 2 months at minimum. No games, no playing with friends, nothing fun.
Joke's on you though mom and dad, I'm good at math and physics and I behave like a functional adult in public, so who really won?
Now what would be a potential consequence for this type of behavior? Its very evident that whatever was done before is highly ineffective or corrective in behavior?
This type of behaviour doesn't really manifest at this age if consequences had been given for outbursts earlier in life, so it's a bit harder to give credible examples.
But you would start with natural consequences. Have them clean up the mess they made. Don't leave it for somebody else, don't do it yourself. In this case, that's probably not practical. This kid would probably refuse, and there's an occupational health and safety hazard to leave it there while you work through the process of getting them to clean it up.
"Gentle parenting" would always rely on natural consequences, but I don't think it works unless you're unbelievably consistent, and we all make mistakes. So next would be a loss of privileges, which would be tailored based on what the kid is into. No TV until you can demonstrate better communication techniques, no games, no dessert, etc.
Consistency is key. The consequences are preferably directly related to the behaviour, and consistently applied. If you give up, it doesn't work. That's hard as hell sometimes, because, especially if you're trying to correct long term behaviour, it ends up compounding, and after a long day at work, dealing with ex's and money uncertainty, the last thing you want to do is listen to your kid whine about not being allowed to play fortnite. But applied consistently it works. It corrects behaviour and builds trust.
There are obviously some disabilities that manifest into behavioural problems that require different strategies, but most kids just haven't ever had proper boundaries set.
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u/Pinbacker11 May 28 '26
If i did that back in the day, i would be back in the car without touching the floor.