can of consequences

as a mom of teenagers i have learned to be creative with my discipline. i was crying out to God the other morning because my peaceful home is about to be not so peaceful. and by peaceful i mean no bickering and fighting teenagers. you see moe has been gone most of the summer, and freddie has been working and squirt has been the social butterfly. so with everyone doing their own thing they haven't been able to bicker and fight. well last weekend they weren't home one hour before it all started up again. luckily for me squirt went to stay the week with kimmie and moe went to to stay the week with his mom. but that one day of everyone home together gave me a little taste of what hell my life will be if we don't get a handle on the bickering, fighting, and hurtful words being thrown at each other. so as i was crying out to Jesus, He gave me a wonderful idea. i'm calling it the can of consequences. it is an actual can full of little slips of paper covered with lots of fun things for the children to do when they say hurtful words. a few examples are wash the dishes, scrub the toilet, laundry, trash etc. it also has thoughtful consequences like say 5 nice things about the person you're mad at, do 1 nice thing for the person you're mad at, write a letter explaining why you're mad, hug the person you're mad at in the middle of the street. ok that last one might be stretching it but you get the picture. i don't know if it will work but at this point it can't make things worse and it may help them to realize that bickering and fighting is not the answer and a kind word turns away wrath. i'll keep ya'll posted on their progress.