One TIme

You might not believe it, but this innocent, sweet, peas and chicken-n-dumpling eating boy is not always so cute and innocent.
As a matter of fact, lately he's been down right rude!
The biggest infraction he has is his response to anything he doesn't want to do is "NO" in a super bratty, brings my blood to a boil in a nano second tone of voice.  Seriously.   Then, when you ask him to please respond nicely, the tone gets ever worse, he gets a "like hell am I going to do what you want" manner.
Since I am trying to teach the boys GOOD manners and to be polite and kind, this little bit of impulsive extreme defiance...didn't sit too well with me.
So, I reached way back into my memories...and remembered an old stand by that always worked on my brothers, sister, and myself if we were back talking, saying naughty words, etc.  Now, I only remember this actually being used (on me) maybe one or two times total, but if that is all it was used, the threat of it was enough to nip future offenses in the bud if this punishment was mentioned.

When I happened to have a bottle of the stuff in the kitchen.  I pulled it out, showed it to Jack, had him smell it.  I told him it did not taste nice and that the next time he said "NO" in that tone of voice he'd just used, he'd get to see what hot sauce tasted like.
Well, he sort of laughed but didn't say "NO" again.  The next day he said it (this had become a frequent habit of his) and I gave him one last warning.  "Jackson, if you can't talk nicely, I will let you taste something that is as yucky as your words."
Well, the next time comes.  He says his "NO" and throws a fit over whatever it was he thought was worth throwing a fit over.  I calmly approach him, let him know he had lots of chances to change his ways.
I open the bottle of hot sauce, put my finger on top of the bottle and turn it over.  He is watching me..."is she really going to do this?  I bet not" is what he is thinking.
I turn to him, rubbing off almost all the hot sauce I had just put on my finger (it was a teeny tiny drip so this made it miniscule).  I ask him to open his mouth or his punishment will be much worse.  Surprisingly, he opens.
He tastes.
He cries.
He spits.
He now no longer says "NO" in a sassy tone of voice.
AND...if he does start to slip back into that form, all I have to do is hold up a bottle of hot sauce (thank you Popeye's wicked chicken for providing us with enough to store all over the house, car, my wallet, etc, etc) and BAM, he and all other children in the room are suddenly good as gold.

I wonder if this works on 8 year olds who think they need to have the last word???