Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Have You Ever Had To Write "I Will/Will Not [Fill In The Blank Here]" When You Were In School?

One punishment that you may be familiar with in a school setting is writing x number of sentences saying that you will not talk in class, chew gum, or whatever you did wrong.

I think I've had that punishment once. At one point, I had said the word "shut up" (which was considered a "bad word") and had to write it down 200 times. (That's just the number for the first offense.)

I'm considering having myself doing that whenever I make a mistake I could've easily prevented at the time, especially if it's one that by any means affects someone else in a negative way. (After all, part of what this blog is intended to emphasize is that one's actions do affect others, and that said actions need to have a positve effect.) I'm very prone to forget the simple things, I'm hoping that this penalty for myself will reinforce in me that doing the wrong thing or failing to do the right thing is not is not IS NOT acceptable, especially if it means, hurting, offending, and/or letting down someone else.

There were simple mistakes in the past that I've made more than once (such as leaving the phone off the hook or not turning off the light when I leave the room) and have gotten in trouble for. Other times, I made a mistake on something that I had been informed of in the past. (For instance, the rule on putting away groceries was that frozen stuff went in first. Once, I handed my dad the wrong thing, and he got P.O.'d about it, and it turned into a little discussion of my tendency to not have my brain on at certain times.)  

Once I do make a mistake on something I didn't know about, and I am told what IS supposed to happen (for instance, I put the sponge on the back of the sink, and I was told later that it's supposed to go in the drainer), I'm worried that I will forget and repeat the mistake, and that the you-know-what will hit the fan. I think in a case like that, I'll write it down 25 times if it's a first offense. Second time, it'll be 50 times (75 if I failed to catch the mistake before someone else did). Third time and beyond, it'll be 100 times. For mistakes on things that I have been informed of before the mistake happend and/or ones in which I should've used my common sense, it'll be a hundred sentences of what I will/will not do every time I mess up.

This may sound like I'm being too hard on myself, but if others will not tolerate my mistakes, why should I tolerate the mistakes myself, especially if they effect someone else?  I may not have control on other peoples' behavior, but surely I can control my own.

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