Kiss n' Make Up

Mom was always tough on us for arguing or fighting. Her slogan was, "If you fight, I will win." and she was right, she won.

There were many ways that Mom "won" when we kids argued or fought. The first way was not creative, the "old fashioned paddling" but she didn't care so much about creativity. She would line us up and paddle one, then the next and on down the line. 

Some of the other ways Mom and Dad disciplined us were standing with your nose in the corner, or grounding, or extra chores.  I'm sure there were other ways that are evading my memory. 

Though creativity was not Mom's first priority, she came up with a new punishment for fighting that was pure torture to us older kids. If she told you once to stop, and you continued, she made you both stand in the center of the floor and hug n' kiss twenty-five times. We hated it.... But generally before we finished counting we would be giggling, particularly when we learned a secret that made it "not so bad." 

While we stood in the center of the floor kissing twenty-five times, Mom would watch. But we learned that as we went forward to kiss, we could each raise our hand (the one away from Mom) and kiss our own hand instead of each other. (Mom never knew about this until we were grown)

Evidently we older kids forgot to pass our secret down to the younger ones. Of course Anita informed me that Mom would make them hug and kiss ten times. (She was getting soft in her old age) 

Anita told that she and Joel would fight and argue a lot. One incident she told about was that they had been into it and Mom told them to hug and kiss. Anita said when Joel asked  if they were to do it ten times, she got even more angry with him. But Mom decided it must not be an apt punishment when it didn't bother Joel so much.