This weeks prompt for Week 40: Trouble.
What happened when you got into trouble as a child? What was punishment like in your home?
When my mother or father was angry with me I would get sent to my room. My room was actually one of my favorite places to be. I had my books, my animals (birds, hamsters, guinea pigs, the cat - great napping company), a television, a stereo, everything I really enjoyed. I do remember storming off and slamming my door but once I got to my room everything was fine.
The one thing I do remember is the guilt. I always felt guilty for being bad. My parents yelled and then there was the talk: "We know you are better then this" or the famous "We are so disappointed in your behavior". The guilt was worse than any banishment to the room or chore I was require to do. Somehow to this day I think my parents still use the guilt method on me, heaven knows I respond well to it.
There may be a guilt gene in the family. One of my youngest children would put herself in time out at the preschool. The director would tell me about her time spent in timeout - the pat response was"I did something wrong, I was naughty and I don't want to discuss it". The director thought as long as she was a happy child I shouldn't worry about it. We never learned what "bad behavior" she did. She did have a habit of cocking her head and saying Oy vey - I still to this day have no idea where she learned that.
52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts (one for each week of 2011) that invite genealogists and others to record memories and insights about their own lives for future descendants.
