The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves

In Troy’s martial arts class if the teacher has to ask the kids to do something more than once, the teacher will make the kids do push-ups as a punishment. I decided that sounded like a fantastic idea, so I started using the same system at home. I get so tired of having to ask Troy multiple times to do something. It’s frustrating for him to ignore us and keep doing whatever he feels like or constantly question us for an explanation, so he can drag it out and procrastinate. So, if I have to ask him more than once, then he owes me three push-ups.

The thing is that they never taught the kids in his class how to do a proper push-up with proper form. So, the kids believe that they can crank out push-ups without pain. But most of them have their knees on the floor or their bums in the air and they don’t go all the way to the floor. The first thing I did was work on Troy’s mechanics, and now he’s feeling that push-up all the way through. He was actually BEGGING to do push-ups in his last class, but he’s not begging anymore. And considering how often he disobeys or mouths off, it shouldn’t be long before he’s got some strong little arms!

It was funny the first time that I told him to give me a push-up with his body straight, lowering himself slowly to the floor and smoothly back up again, he actually complained and told me it was impossible. So, I dropped to the floor in the middle of the den and cranked out ten of them right in front of him. I stood up and asked him if he still thought they were impossible. His cheeky reply was that I was stronger than him. So, I said that I also weighed three times as much as him, which would mean I’d have to be three times as strong. He had no reply to that, and he decided to stop and just do the push-ups. And amazingly, he was able to give me three decent push-ups. He had to give me six more before the end of the day.