Texas Parents Sentence Teen to Free Babysitting

The Offence
Kirstin Rausch got bored one night when her girl friend was staying over. At bedtime she decided to invite about half a dozen friends over for an impromptu party in her family's media room. Her father and step-mother woke up at 2:30 a.m., and her friends were still in the house. The 16-year-old honour student was caught red handed, having broken both her bedtime curfew and the house rule against having friends over late at night.

The Punishment
Robert Rausch sentenced his daughter to 30 hours of unpaid babysitting. Rausch and his wife Wendy had initially wanted Kirstin to take part in a community service project, but when several community organizations were unable to assign a project, the family got more creative.

They took out a newspaper ad featuring Kirstin's picture and offering the free babysitting. The ad, worded to sound as though Kirstin had written it, explained the teen was in trouble for breaking curfew.

The Lesson
What has Kirstin learned from the punishment? In her own words, "I learned that if you break curfew you're going to get in trouble. And everything- every mistake has a consequence." In other words, she learned she couldn't get away with breaking the rules.

Consequence or Punishment?
Kirstin refers to her punishment as a consequence, but are the two concepts synonymous? The word "consequence" implies a relationship of cause and effect. Parents who prefer to rely on consequences instead of punishments sometimes talk about "natural consequences," to underline that consequences resulting from an act are not created or arbitrary. A consequence follows on the heels of an act, without thought or choice. If a child touches a hot stove or iron, the consequence is he gets burned. If a child spends her lunch money on candy, the consequence is she goes hungry at lunchtime.

Punishments, unlike consequences, are not a matter of natural cause and effect. The word "punishment" carries with it the implication of pain - perhaps not the physical pain of a spanking, but maybe an inconvenience or some other discomfort. Punishment can seem arbitrary and perhaps even unfair. But it can also be creative, fitting and well deserved.

Was Kirstin's free babysitting a consequence? I don't see it that way. Nothing about the situation naturally led to free babysitting. Now had the family been fined for a noise complaint, having the teen work to pay the fine would represent a consequence. A consequence of the party could also have been that her parents would not trust her to have friends sleep over, or even that her friends' parents may have decided she was not the sort of girl they wanted their children keeping company with. But the ad and the forced free babysitting were designed to inflict some discomfort, and to teach the teen her parents were still the boss. This is a punishment, not a consequence.

Sources:
Maurice Richter, "Parents get creative after teen breaks curfew." Southlake Journal