When the crying child is immediately isolated, and it is explained to him at the same time that whoever annoys others must not be with them, if this isolation is the absolute result and cannot be avoided, in the child's mind a basis is laid for the experience that one must be alone when one makes oneself unpleasant or disagreeable.
I was often very, incredibly naughty, and if I didn't come home at tea time I used to be sent to bed without any dinner. But people used to bring me things: I was better fed in bed.
Yeah, I was a delinquent. It was when I was in the ninth grade. I was doing stupid stuff, and the cops came into the class. I was humiliated more than anything.
I come from regional, small-city drag, where if you won Miss Des Moines, Iowa, and you did something bad, or you were being a role model, your crown was taken away.
If I'm naughty, I'm grounded for two weeks or Mum takes my phone and my laptop because she knows I can't live without them. Sometimes I'll say, 'Mum, do you just want to take my laptop?' because I can still use the Internet on my phone. But now she's going to read this and see what I've been doing.
A parent being called to the school because their child had misbehaved was as serious as a parent being called to the police station because their child had robbed a bank.
My mother was German, and I was brought up with 'Struwwelpeter' stories, which are invested with all sorts of horrors waiting for you if you do the wrong thing.
I have always joked that I have three mothers. I couldn't get away with anything as a kid. Whether I got a bad mark or was told off, it would always end up getting back to my parents.
I had some good Alabama raising. You might do something wrong, but you wouldn't do it but once.
