...No, not the novel but the theory.

So, there is this woman in Tennessee that is completely fed up with her daughter's behavior and has reached the end of her rope in figuring out how to punish the 13 year old child. So she came up with a creative idea that could only have been inspired by another great piece of literature: 'The Scarlet Letter'.

The girl has a sign. She was made to stand on a busy street corner with a sign listing the things that she has done wrong: she's a liar, she's a thief, she doesn't obey her parents and has a bad attitude, she doesn't know how to multiply going into the 8th grade, she's boy crazy. And the mother made her stand there for 4 hours.

The mother defends her actions by saying that while nothing else works, she could be beating her child but isn't. So she's hoping that this works and is going to make her stand there all week.

The daughter thinks that this is "cruel and unusual punishment" and says there's nothing wrong with liking boys. But she also admitted that wearing the sign this past Sunday was an eye opener and that "it might even work". She doesn't want to do it again because people were looking at her like she was crazy wearing that sign.

I guess there's nothing like a little public humiliation to keep a child in line. Especially when that child known that she's going to be doing this all week *and* wearing that sign to church as well.

Now, I don't know that I'd do that to one of my kids. I can't imagine doing that to them, although DH and I have come up with some creative punishments that we've threatened the kids with (and have yet to use because they don't want to tempt us into using them). But a sign? Public humiliation? I don't think so...

...because what goes around, comes around and paybacks are a, well, you know.