..... I give them some sort of menial labor, like pulling weeds to do while they contemplate what they did wrong and how to correct it. They have to come to me with their reasoning and if I truly believe that they put some thought in and want to correct their error, I will give them the almighty do over. If I think it's smoke and mirrors, back to the weeds! There is nothing in the world that teenagers hate worse that manual labor. I've been a foster parent for almost 10 years and i've had 82 children. I have seen every conceivable attitude and this works.
Very sage advice indeed!
Thanks for bringing back the memory of a few years ago when my two teenager kids were pulling weeds and bickering after being sent outside to work off an argument. The neighbor looked over the fence and said, "Your Mom's garden is sure looking nice this summer. I'd have thought you'd have figured out how to get along, but maybe you all just like pulling weeds...". He chuckled and walked off. When the kids told me about it later, they both wondered how our neighbor knew that was why they were out there. I assured them it was an age-old solution to tempers.
