My 7 year old caught playing with fire... What would YOU do?
 

What would you do? He was out back trying to light a tree stump on fire with a bic. Then yesterday I wake up and smell GAS, one of the stove burners was on and the pilot was apparently out. Then later during a nap I awake to a funny smell, only to see that he had the stove burner on again and this time the pilot was working so the pan was burning up. I knew I turned it off after dinner, but when I felt the burner it was still warm. After 2+ hours it would surely have been cool. He does not realize how smart I am even though I catch his ass every time.

On top of all that, he lied to me about it. And again, and again.

I am about to bury his ass.

http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/738/maddox0mj.jpg
bury his ass

Every kid goes through that curiosity.

Sorry, you will have to bury him, and start over. There are no other alternatives.

Well. The first day I put him in the corner for hours, or at least until his knees started to burn. Then the next day I made him stand in a doorway with his arms to his side (since the previous day he was leaning a lot of the time and he never learned his lesson).

Now he has been at the dining room table writing about lying to me and playing with fire. His fingers are starting to hurt, but he is almost done.

I was so close to putting him down for good, hehe. Surprisingly I held in my temper.

See if you can get (the hospital's) permission to take him to a hospital burn ward. Seeing people disfigured from flames will instill a far longer lasting fear in him than "spanking" him - and won't be considered abuse by liberal pansies.

Good idea.

Besides, I don't have anything around here BIG enough to smack him with... and trust me I was looking!

I do like the idea though, may find some time to do that.

I think you sleep too much

That's a good idea. Tell him that a lot of innocent people die in fires, including firemen.

:thumbsup
I remember playing with fire as a kid and burnt down a field, fence and nearly started a house on fire... We were lucky. Hopefully something like the hospital route would change his ways.

I'd blame it on videogames, write a book about it, and get an appearance on "Oprah". Think outside the box my friend. Outside the beautiful burning, flame-engulfed smoking box.







I'm gonna need some tissue.

..then go home, burn his finger, beat his ass, and tell him the next time you catch him doin that shit, you'll set HIM on fire.

extreme? ya. but the fuckin kid is putting YOUR LIFE in danger. leaving the gas on in the house, wtf???? beat his ASS! but, go to the burn unit in a hospital first.

Curiousity is natural, three times in 2 days tho, thats pushing it, have a bon fire and let him play in it, ya know throwing wood in, that kind of stuff, get the curiousity out of his system. If that doesnt work beat(used figuratively) his ass.

Hummm, I do not have kids so I am not sure...

Mr. Romance

hahah, being a parent sucks 4 sure!

I woundnt even know wtf to do. I mean what do you do? You can hit him and shit, LOL. :1orglaugh

Best way... Would let R kelly talk with her, 1 on 1....

I always wonder about this, how I will discipline my future kids. When I was young I lied to my parents about everything and snuck around behind their backs on a daily basis.

And I lovedddddd playing with fire, I burned everything I could and stole money from my father to buy firecrackers.

I think I turned out alright though...

i guess if he still doesnt learn his lesson, let him be with the fire. If he burn himslef, at least he'll know that fires arent the ones you can fool around.

Blame it on Beavis and Butthead... :eek2

Genius! I am one of those guys that have as many kids as I can, I have three and one in the oven, I have found that teaching a kid exactly what is up works best!

true dat

Do I know you? I did the same damn thing.

Haha... I did chase him around the house with a lighter last night telling him I was going to set his pants on fire.

In most cases I treat him like one of the guys. I have a lot of friends and he is around a lot of grown ups acting out. I teach him real life shit all the time. Being this lenient definately makes for a tough situation when the table turns to the serious side. I usually talk to him calmly explaining exactly (breaking it down in 7 year old detail) what where when and why... It works most of the time, he is a good kid. I just want to make sure he doesn't forget this punishment.

I was cool with it and handled it rather well the first day, but then the very next day? I was HEATED!

To say the least.

he might blow up the house next time he plays with the gas on the stove.

Maybe show him pics of burn victims.

that's exactly what i was going to say.

Yea he just needs to know to respect fire :)

Best idea , and it works. :thumbsup

I always played with fire when I was kid, I burned myself a bunch of times but that was it. After a few times I finally learned my lesson and was really careful. Instead of beating him sign him up for cub scouts/boy scouts where they'll teach him how to safely use fire. Granted, when I was in a kid was doing a safety demonstration and just about blew his head off, but thats a different story.

I agree too, take him to some burn treatment area and show him this what happens when you play with fire. And maybe he might learn his lesson or it might scare him abit.

i suggest talking to him. this is something not to take lightly because you don't want to get to the day where you will regret not putting your foot down. Taking him to a hospital is a great idea so he can see the damage fire could cause.

I used to play with fire and didn't learn my lesson until I set the yard on fire one dry summer. It has to get personal before he learns a true lesson. Either by getting burned or by a fire getting out of control. There is very little you can do aside from limiting his access to lighters and matches until he grows out of this.

He may be picking up some of this off the internet. Playing with fire videos are showing up all over. There are a ton on YouTube...

https://youtube.com/results?search=fi...=search_videos

Call the local fire station, they have a program for kids at most of them. Take him to the site of a house fire, let him see the damage first-hand. My son did the same at 4yo, and that's what I did, and to this day I've never had another problem with him and fire.

Quit taking naps and keep an eye on your kid for fucks sake.

my son burnt our house down at 4 years old, hasn't done it since LOL

i was at work, and my wife was taking care of my daughter downstairs feeding her, while my son was supposed to be watching cartoons, for that small amount of time. Next thing you know he's caught our bed on fire. You can't watch em all the time every waking hour, anyone that says that doens't have kids (notice the 's'). My son knows better now, but it was a great expense for his learning not to. There are things i would of done differently, looking back hindsight is 20/20.

Main thing is to simply talk to my son more about it. I did tell him fire is bad, etc... the normal parent stuff. However, I wish I would of done it more and been clearer about the reprocussions of it. With older kids, maybe a trip to the burn unit could help, at 4 i thought my son was a bit young but at 7 there would of been no question in my mind.

We do watch our kids, very well, just one of those things that happened. We had had the talk that fire is bad and dangerous, but you cant do what we did back in the days, where my father would of simply set me aside and burnt my finger with a lighter, which at a young age would of then sunk in, 'hey this could hurt me'. LOL

tan his hide.

Wow, thanks for the support. I have been continually talking to him about it, even told him some of the things you folks have said. I wanted to blow my top so bad. And the punishments are getting to him, but it is true, letting him see first hand may make this all mean something to him.

I called the local hospital, and because I live in such a rural area, they do not have anyone in right now. Perhaps some pics from the net could suffice.

My old man burnt my fingers with matches as a lesson..seemed to work I didn't fuck around after that

see??? read my post above lol (re: burn his finger)

Just don't use the belt buckle.. :winkwink: