Mom's point-based punishment system for her child gets approval from netizens across the world

One of the main aspects of parenting that come under constant scrutiny is how best to teach children acceptable behavior and the importance of respecting rules. As a job that plays a significant role in the emotional development of a child, a lot has been said and critiqued about the appropriate ways to discipline young ones. While it's rare for the internet to agree on any topic, one mom's point-based punishment for her child has been widely praised by netizens across the world. Shared by the MagicMum Facebook page a few years ago, an image of the mom's "Grounded" notice has been liked over 68k times and shared by more than 420k people.

The notice with the headline "Congratulations! You got grounded!!!" lists out a number of activities and chores for the child to complete in order to be ungrounded. It states that for the offense of "playing on phone after bedtime," the child had to earn 500 points to no longer be grounded. According to the notice, by writing "a nice letter to someone in the family," the child would earn 10 points. While preparing and cooking dinner, and cleaning and organizing a kitchen cupboard were worth 50 points each, doing one load of laundry would earn them 100 points.

25 points each were assigned to "empty dishwasher," "load dishwasher," "clean and wash off counters," and "dust living room." While cleaning the bathroom was worth 50 points, cleaning out the microwave would be worth 40. "Clean and vacuum living room," and "sweep and mop kitchen" were both assigned 30 points and 10 points each were to be earned by completing any of these activities: "wash windows," "water house plants," "take out trash (and re-bag,) and "clean litter box." Posting a photograph of the mom's "Grounded" notice, MagicMum asked its followers whether the disciplining method was "too harsh or about right?"

Commenters were mostly of the opinion that there was nothing too harsh about the mom's disciplining tactics. "Harsh? Not even close. These are things the kids should be doing to help out as a family unit. They need to help out and learn responsibility and what goes into being part of a family and not taking for granted what Mom does all the time," commented Facebook user Cary Lieberman. "I could quibble about the points on several of these, but, generally, no this is not too harsh," wrote Tim Gatewood.

"Nothing harsh about it. Hell, that's stuff most teenagers should be doing anyway. Besides, the whole list = 500 points. Well, assuming only 1 trash can, cupboard and window is done. Lmao. So there's no 'easy' way about it," commented Aayla Secura. "Love the idea... whether or not [it is] too harsh I would have to know what issues caused the punishment. But I love most disciplines that don't involve hitting your child. This shows these parents are thinking outside the box," wrote Peggy Sivelle. "Depends what you mean by harsh. Maybe lower points for playing with phone after bedtime. I'd say like 500 points should be more for getting in detention at school or something. Just depends on the offense. It's a creative idea! I love It! I wouldn't call it harsh, because when I think of harsh of something more extreme. I think this is a cute idea," commented Madison Herres.