Crime and Punishment

{In our family, we have chosen to keep our kids out of the "jr church" program, until they turn 4 years old. This is for a variety of reasons, but the main one being, we desire our children to learn how to be quiet, attentive, and still...just generally exhibiting the quality of self control from a young age, and we seize this opportunity as a good chance to teach it. Once they are 4, and only if I feel they are able to handle themselves in a mature manner, they are allowed to go to the "big kids" church. So Brooks is new to the jr church experience. And he has someone to tell on him}

In our "how was church" conversations on the way home, Kenna reported that Brooks was made to sit on the quiet chair because he was not paying attention. Brooks explained that he couldn't pay attention because his friend was distracting him.

I explained that if he could not sit with his friends and have self control, then he would have to sit away from them in the future. And also that he would have to apologize to the childrens pastor for not being attentive during class. He agreed this was a good discipline, and we talked of ways of making next week better. Because we don't want to lose the privilege of going to "big kids church":-)

So in the evening, when we were back at church, Brooks tearfully apologized for not paying attention. It was actually super cute, and I could tell he didn't want to do it, but he did it! Time will tell if that is a lesson learned, or if further work on his little self-control will be needed:-)