Time to break out the thumbscrews

B is in a cocky phase at the moment. Pushes every limit there is, but does it in a way that makes it hard to actually pin anything on him or punish him for anything specific. So we're trying to gloss over it as best we can, hoping that it blows over before we have to do something drastic. Like sell him to a band of travelling gypsies.

A couple of times in the last week he's gone too far and we've punished him by taking away his dessert. (which I realize is ill-advised in some parenting circles, but it's usually quite effective.)

Now comes the rub: As soon as we do this S splits his dessert in half and passes it over to B. In itself this is, of course, a wonderful thing since he's demonstrating a level of compassion I didn't even know was possible for a 7 year old.

But on the other hand it's very annoying, because it completely undermines any effect our punishment might have otherwise had.

It's time to think up some new tricks. Something new that even Saint Martin couldn't foil....