this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2026
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My friend's parents tried this sort of punishment mindset with him when it was a kid. He ended up grounded with increasingly draconian punishments for roughly five years because of the shockingly impressive stubbornness of all people involved until they "gave up on him" after 7th grade (yes, this literally started when he was a 2nd grader). He ended up moving out on his own at 16 and dropping out of school and didn't really have a relationship with them for a good decade and a half.
I don't really have any words of wisdom from this other than never underestimate a person's ability to defy logic. It just ended up ruining the whole family's experience for a long, long time.
Edit: I did just remember something "funny" about the whole thing. My friend didn't really know how to, or enjoy, doing a lot of things that pretty much all kids did because of his seemingly eternal grounding. And he was quite literally the palest person I have ever known because he only went outside to get on the bus for school. His parents turned him into some sort of cave person lol
Is your friend Butters Stotch?
Nah, he was (well is, we're still friends after 30 years) actually pretty cool unlike the South Park character. I guess it was easy to be cool when you gave no fucks about getting in trouble.
Punishments are like the least effective way to convince/teach someone
For most kids, getting rid of something they like for a day or weekend tends to be enough of a punishment. From that story, tho? Parents were going waaaaaaaay overboard
Yeah in small doses they can work, generally it's just better to talk to them
it did not start when you said it started probably
it is true that I can't say for when it initially started, but we became friends in 4th grade and I saw the last three years of it first hand and he was already quite used to not being allowed to leave his yard or have friends over. He was notorious for being defiant, though not violent, to teachers as well and was constantly being written up.