Flashback Fridays 2009-6

For a LONG time our girls have had the wicked naughty habit of dumping out the shampoo into their bath water. They like how it makes lots of bubbles. The problem has been compounded since we moved into our new house. Shampoo coupled with jacuzzi jets makes tons of bubbles, and that is a conservative statement. You would think that now that Erin and Shan are older (and wiser) they would have learned from previous discipline tactics to STOP pouring out the shampoo, but NO!
Bill decided (and I completely agree) that new measures should be taken, so he told both girls that since they continued to waste shampoo that they would need to use their allowance money to buy the next bottle of shampoo and conditioner. There was an abundance of weeping and wailing at that news. Erin thought it wasn't fair, and Sissy cried about how much of her saved money she would have to use. Mom and Dad thought that this plan was the golden ticket to reformation.
So last night I took the girls to the store to purchase their shampoo and conditioner. While the girls shopped the shampoo aisle with glee, I thought "OH NO! This isn't what is suppose to happen! I need some tears here. I need some remorse. I need some complaints about what rotten parents we are!" Those girls must have smelled every shampoo and conditioner, and delighted in all the different colors! They were having the time of their lives. Arrrrrgh.
As if that wasn't enough, you should have seen them with their money at the cash register acting like they were buying diamonds or something. They were soooo proud to be "big" girls, and the cashier was soooo friendly, competent, and patient! When does that ever happen? Great customer service in 2009, what?
I thought I was going to throw up on the way home while they planned on taking baths as soon as the key unlocked the front door of our home. Mercy! I added my two or three cents about why they had to buy the shampoo and conditioner in the first place. I reminded them if they were careful not to waste it that mom and dad would gratefully supply the next bottles. I don't think they were listening to a single word I said because before we got home Shannon had spilled some of the shampoo. Erin used the conditioner as lotion on her legs because it smelled so good that she just couldn't help herself.
When Bill got home I told him the whole story that I just told you. He said, "This was suppose to be punishment." I concur, but it seems like our wonderful, "teach 'em a lesson" plans backfired. Parenting is truly the hardest job in the world. Sigh, I need a bubble bath!