Mirror Mirror on the Wall

Last week my husband, Mike asked our first born son, Ian to watch over his little brother, Pupu Panda to make sure he finishes his homework while he went to take a bath. As Mike stepped out of the shower, steam slowly dissipating, this face, like the Cheshire Cat, emerges from the swirling mist. How dramatic.     

The Angry Pupu Panda

Mike noticed a patch of uneven hair right at the top of Pupu Panda's head. "Ok, this ought to be good," I imagined Mike thinking to himself. So in comes Ian, still clutching a pair of scissors. "Dad," he started his defense "he won't do his homework, so I cut  his hair."

You don't need to know what happened after that.

So anyway, here's what I'm thinking. If we teach by example, and children are like sponges and that they are mere reflections of ourselves and all that, where the hell did Ian learn to dole out punishment so swiftly, so ruthlessly? And justice so ill-befitting the crime at that! Did he get that from us? Are we guilty of passing out punishment disproportionate to the crime?

I mean, all we've ever sentenced them to is squatting for 10 minutes while holding up an obsolete encyclopedia or being grounded for 500 years. I'm just kidding, actually, when they err we kidnap their favorite toys (Nintendo DS and a cute cuddly teddy bear in a Celtics uniform) or we hold them for ransom to get them to do whatever it is then still find a reason not to give them back even after they've done whatever it is. I mean where do kids nowadays get this sense of entitlement anyway? 

Ok, what is the point of all this? The point is, justice is a funny thing. You might think you are doing right by your kids by punishing them for mistakes they make. But that only works if the punishment is equal in gravity to the mistake made. If there is an imbalance between crime and punishment, I swear Justice comes back and bites you in the ass. But how do you determine the punishment?

I don't know. All I know is Ian is now sporting the same hairdo as Pupu Panda's.

No, not the funny, uneven one. We took them to the barber's after the incident to even out Pupu's hair. What did you think? We're not monsters.