Discipline for a 7 year old.......'Home Improvement day'

Matty is very excited.
She holds up her star splayed fingers of 5 plus two on her right hand and shows me her school uniform, still stiff on its hangar. Seven years old and off to ‘big school’.

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I agree to have tea with her mother whilst she goes off to put it on so I can enjoy her pirouettes on the ‘cat walk’. Her smile is from ear to ear. She doesn’t want a centimetre taken off the grey skirt which is a mere 10 centimetres off her little white socks…... Such joy………..such anticipation.

On the first day she is sad to leave the classroom at noon, but the promise of a swim tempts her home.

It is 5.30 pm and Matty climbs out of the pool to have a quick shower. She returns to the family room half an hour later resplendent in her school uniform once more! Barbie pink is OUT…..school uniform with a badge on the pocket, is IN.

A week of continued happiness follows but on school day 6 her mother Pat is sad to receive an e mail from Matty’s teacher. She is disappointed to read that she has not shed her habit of being demanding and bossy amongst her peers. Apparently she pinched Robert so hard that there is a bruise on his arm.

Pat sighs remembering unfortunate occurrences at nursery school in the past, but she has a plan. She shoots a quick response off to her teacher to say that she will be keeping Matty home from school the next day.

“Did all go well in school today,” she asks smiling at Matty as she loads her backpack into the boot of the car.
“Oh yes, I sang a song for a concert……the one about the red bicycle.”
“Did you do the whistling part?” her mother inquired.
“Yes, and Sally also knew the dance so we did it together,” she added.
“No problems then?”
“Oh no I swopped my sarmie at break,”
“No one was sad or cross?” her mother inquired.
“No.”
“No problem with Robert?”
Finally Matty looks downcast, “he pushed me first…. away from the swing!”

Pat explains quietly that her teacher has told her that Robert had cried because it was a very painful pinch and that the school doesn’t want her back until she can control such bad behaviour. Pat also explains that lying is the one rule in the family that deserves punishment.

“Tomorrow is your ‘Home Improvement’ day,” she tells a wide eyed Matty.
The morning dawns and the older siblings go off to school with the usual banter and noise associated with making sure lunches are packed and books and sports’ clothing remembered.

Matty watches sadly as they leave, Pat driving and the others waving her goodbye.
Ethel the housekeeper approaches with a pretty apron that she had fashioned out of a tea towel. “Job number 1”.........she says peering at the list that Pat has put under a ship magnet on the fridge.

Matty’s eyes grow big as Ethel takes her puzzle out of her small hands and places the portable vacuum cleaner in them instead. “Out we go to the dog’s sleeping veranda,” she hums “Hi ho Hi ho and off to work we go…….”
She helps Matty haul the 3 dog’s baskets and two igloo kennels apart. She leaves her energetically vacuuming the dog hair and dirt off their blankets, actually enjoying the work. The spaniels keep her company and she sings to them. She sweeps the veranda under supervision and by the time Pat comes home the child’s hair is plastered to her small skull but her face is beaming with her achievement.
After tea and toast together Matty thinks she'll play Lego but the housekeeper shows her Job number 2 and that means hauling every toy and puzzle out of her cupboard in her room and cleaning it out.

This is less to her liking but every puzzle and game is examined for missing pieces and those are found in the muddle pile and replaced. By the time Pat comes home from her office Matty’s hair is wet again from the real effort she had put into her work.

Her job after lunch is in the store room with Sam the gardener who gives her 5 plastic boxes in the toolshed and she spends an hour sorting screws, nuts and bolts into similar piles. Pat is keeping an eye on her from her office in the garden and notices that Sam is correcting her from time to time and obviously explaining with a finger on the dial of his watch that it isn’t yet time for play.

Pat relents when the teenagers are dropped off by a neighbour with whom they share lifts. “Let’s show Josh and Jayne what a home improvement day has meant to you Matty,” and the child puffs out her chest as they look at the clean dog sleeping area, her toy cupboard and the sorted nuts and bolts. They are actually impressed and tell her. "good job Matty."

“Now you can swim with Jayne while I speak to your teacher and ask if she is happy to have you back at school tomorrow.”
Matty is still sitting on the edge of the pool hugging the young Labrador Mr T, waiting anxiously for her mother to re appear.

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After a short while Pat makes a fuss of coming out to tell Matty that if she tries really hard never to hurt any of the other children and seeing she has had a most successful ‘Home Improvement Day’, she can go back to her class on the following morning.
She is so delighted that she leaps up and claps her hands and shouts “yay, I can go back to my beautiful school.” The 5 dogs rush about barking and the teenagers sigh theatrically and roll their eyes at each other careful not to say out loud, “she’ll learn!” as their mother watches with an eagle eye.

Miss Martinet welcomes Matty early the next morning and as soon as the child is out of earshot she is totally amazed to hear Pat's story of Matty's Home Improvement day.

"Wow Pat, I've never in 10 years of teaching had a parent take a child's poor behaviour so seriously. Thanks a million! I'm sure it is going to change Matty's ways and your support of me is," and she waves her hands about as though trying to find words in the air, "well, PRICELESS really."

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