A Great Discipline Strategy My Sister Used Around Halloween

History shows that sometimes we discover great things by accident. A scientist left a piece of moldy bread in his lab, and discovered it could kill bacteria. Thus, he discovered penicillin. A king in India left a cup of hot water under a tree, then drank it after a leaf had fallen in, and sat in the hot water for several minutes. That was the discovery of my fvorite beverage -- tea. And yet another scientist noticed that milkmaids never contracted smallpox. He further discovered that this was due to their exposure to the bovne version of smallpox -- cowpox. From that event, we attribute the smallpox vaccine, and the subsequent eradication of a serious and disfiguring disease.

It was in this way, that my sister Haley discovered a very effective way to discipline my little niece Rianna. You see, one Halloween several years ago when Rianna was only 3 [she is 12 now], mother and daughter were in a local garden store, which is still famous in their town for turning the large store into Halloween wonderland. Aside from selling pumpkins, squash, autumn wreaths, and other Halloween decorations, they really go all out. They really decorate the place exquisitely, carry a whole assortment of beautiful costumes, and have people walking around in very authentic costumes.

Rianna, like any other three-year-old, was enchanted and inspired by the display. She already had a beautiful butterfly costume for Halloween, so she didn't need a costume from the display she was looking at that day. Suddenly she saw a Barbie costume and decided she had to have it. Despite my sister's pleading, she would not let go of it"
"But you already have that butterfly costume. Don't you remember?"
"N-o-o-o-o", she wailed. "I w-a-a-a-n-t th-i-i-i-s one........bwa.....bwa....bwa......"
Attempt to take it out of Rianna's hands, were just met by Rianna's grabbing it again and handing it to her mom.

Suddenly, Haley spotted the "Grim Reaper", authentic enough to give any adult the creeps. "Would you do me a favor?" she asked the Reaper. He nodded his hooded head. Haley pointed to Rianna a few feet away, and whispered in the Grim Reaper's ear "Could you tell that little girl to let go of that Barbie costume?" The Reaper nodded agreement.

He snuck behind my little niece, and talked in her ear, in his lowest and creepiest voice: "Little girl, put that costume down!". When Rianna turned to see that the order came from the hooded, dressed-in-black, scythe-wielding Grim Reaper", the Barbie costume dropped out og her hand, to the floor. She ran to her mommy, who was paying for some pumpkins and gourds. She grabbed onto my sister's coat, and pleaded "Please Mommy, can we go home now? I really think we should go home."

Handy tool, right? Of course, only appropriate for toddlers, and at Halloween In fact, there are kids in my niece's middle school who look like the grim reaper every day, and some of them are her buddies. If they barked orders at her, she'd laugh in their faces. But at three years old, it worked perfectly.