Chapter 631 – Standing in Punishment
During the journey back home, Lu Xia didn’t speak to them.
The children probably knew they had made their mom angry, so they kept quiet and behaved exceptionally well on the way back.
Upon arriving home, Lu Xia still didn’t say anything and made them continue standing in punishment.
Then she went back to her room.
She wasn’t sure if they behaved obediently, but anyway, when Jiang Junmo returned from work, they were still standing there.
“Dad.”
“Dad, you’re back!”
“Dad, I missed you!”
As soon as Jiang Junmo walked in, he saw the three little rascals standing in the corner of the living room, looking at him with hopeful eyes.
Surprised, he raised an eyebrow, guessing they had done something wrong.
He nodded at them and went straight into the bedroom without saying anything.
Seeing this, the children sighed in disappointment and continued standing in punishment.
After Jiang Junmo came home, Lu Xia heard his voice, but at the moment, she didn’t want to move.
So, when Jiang Junmo entered the house, he saw her lying on the bed, feeling like she wasn’t in a good mood.
He hurried over and asked, “What’s wrong? Are you not feeling well?”
Lu Xia shook her head. “It’s nothing, just a bit tired. Why did you come back home so early today?”
“I finished early today, so I came back. Is something the matter? Why do you look so tired? Did those kids make you angry today?”
Lu Xia shook her head again. “It’s nothing, I just received a call from the kindergarten that they got into a fight and got injured. I was worried. Maybe I was too tense before, and now that I’ve relaxed a bit, I feel a bit tired.”
“They got into a fight at school?” Jiang Junmo understood upon hearing this. “Injured?”
Lu Xia shook her head. “They didn’t get hurt; they were the ones who injured someone else!”
She then explained the fight to Jiang Junmo.
In conclusion, she said, “I don’t even know who they’ve learned from. They’ve started standing up for the weak against the strong, and they even tried ganging up on one person. You won’t believe it, but that chubby boy’s face turned red from being hit. It’s a good thing he didn’t get hurt; I can’t imagine how worried his parents must be. Fortunately, they were reasonable, or I would have felt so embarrassed.”
Jiang Junmo laughed and nodded, “Indeed, they’re quite clever, knowing how to protect themselves.”
Lu Xia gave him an exasperated look. “I hope it’s not you who taught them that.”
Jiang Junmo shook his head. “It wasn’t me; it’s probably Kang Kang. But they might have misunderstood. Kang Kang probably taught them to seek help from a teacher if someone wants to bully them.”
Lu Xia sighed, “If only they were half as obedient as Kang Kang!”
Jiang Junmo teased, “What should we do then? Send them back to be reborn?”
Lu Xia glared at him again, “You better go and educate them. I’m too tired to deal with this, it’s giving me a headache.”
Jiang Junmo hurriedly said, “Yes, ma’am. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to educate them properly.”
Once Jiang Junmo left, Lu Xia felt a lot better.
She sat up and grabbed an English novel to read.
With Jiang Junmo around, she felt more at ease.
On the other hand, Jiang Junmo called the children over and sat down to chat with them.
“Tell me, why did you get into a fight today?”
The second child clenched his fists and said, “Shitou is bad, he bullies others!”
The third child nodded, “He pulled Ranran’s hair, Ranran was hurt!”
The fourth child looked upset, “Ranran is my friend!”
*
Chapter 632 – Education
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Jiang Junmo understood the situation a bit better after hearing this. The chubby boy who got beaten up was named “Shitou”, and he was bullying a girl named “Ranran.” Ranran was friends with the fourth child, and when she saw her friend being bullied, she called on her two older brothers to help teach the bully a lesson.
Hearing this, Jiang Junmo looked at the children who were still badmouthing Shitou and asked, “If you knew he was doing something wrong, why didn’t you try talking to him and reasoning with him? Why did you resort to fighting to solve the problem? Or why didn’t you tell the teacher and let the teacher handle it?”
“We did tell him, but Shitou didn’t listen!”
“It’s embarrassing to tell the teacher! We can handle it ourselves!”
Jiang Junmo chuckled at their responses. “So why did you go to the teacher when you couldn’t beat him later? Why didn’t you handle it yourselves?”
The children shifted their eyes, and without needing to guess, Jiang Junmo knew what they were thinking. If they could win, they wouldn’t tell the teacher; if they couldn’t, then they’d report to the teacher. Realizing this, Jiang Junmo couldn’t help but laugh.
He considered himself well-behaved and sensible from childhood to adulthood, and Lu Xia also had a well-behaved personality. How come these children were so crafty?
But there was nothing to be done. They were already born, and they couldn’t be sent back.
He could only manage them.
With that in mind, Jiang Junmo patiently started educating them.
“You’re still children, and you don’t understand the extent of things yet. You shouldn’t fight indiscriminately. If you encounter a problem, find a teacher to solve it. If the teacher can’t handle it, then go to your dad and mom. Don’t try to handle it yourselves. What would you do if you got beaten because you didn’t have time to tell the teacher?”
The children lowered their heads upon hearing this.
Seeing that they were absorbing his words, Jiang Junmo asked, “Do you understand now?”
“We understand.”
“We understand.”
“We understand.”
Jiang Junmo: “So, no more fighting from now on?”
“No more fighting.”
“No more fighting.”
“No more fighting.”
The children quickly shook their heads.
Jiang Junmo was satisfied with their responses.
“Alright, later, go apologize to Mom. If she forgives you, this will be over.”
Upon hearing this, the children sighed again, knowing that what Dad said wasn’t final. They exchanged glances and took a deep breath, walking into the bedroom like going to their doom.
Meanwhile, in the bedroom, Lu Xia saw the little rascals slouching and approaching her to apologize. She put down her book, remained silent for a moment, and then looked at them expressionless, asking, “Do you really understand your mistake?”
They quickly nodded.
“We understand.”
“I understand, Mom, I’m sorry.”
“I understand, Mom. I won’t fight anymore, Mom!”
Lu Xia nodded after hearing their responses. “Alright, for now, I’ll believe your words. But a mistake should not go unpunished. Go back and each of you write a self-reflection. After you finish, bring it to me, and I’ll forgive you.”
The children were puzzled upon hearing this. What’s going on? Write a self-reflection? They knew very few words, they could only write their names. How could they write a self-reflection?
But Lu Xia didn’t care. She was determined to make them learn their lesson and leave evidence of their mistake.
However they wrote, she just wanted the final product.
In the end, the little ones could only return to their room, mentally and physically exhausted.
Jiang Junmo laughed upon hearing Lu Xia’s punishment but shook his head and didn’t intervene.
When Kang Kang came back and learned about what happened with his younger siblings, he immediately went to their room.
He found them holding papers and pens, trying to write and draw on the table.
He had also heard about their punishment of writing self-reflections, and he was curious about how they would do it.
So he quietly walked over and took a look…
In a way I feel like the triplets is living the carefree and fun childhood that both Jiang Junmo and Lu Xia never had. One person was ill his entire childhood going into adulthood, while the other didn’t have loving parents and in a way was abused by them.
I feel like Lu Xia should have praised their actions to stand up to bullying, so as to encourage their righteous behavior instead of only being angry at them and punishing them. It’s understandable that they shouldn’t have fought directly and reported to the teacher instead, but she felt even worse for the original bully and felt bad that he was “punished” in turn by her children. Especially since he ended up calling an older boy to help him out, he’s not exactly justified in his actions either.
I think Jiang Junmo’s approach was the correct one, though. He fully understood the situation from their standpoint and explained the possible consequences of their actions and the right choices to make next time. Lu Xia just tends to lean toward directly getting angry and punishing them rather than explaining in a way that would discourage such actions so they have a better understanding of why their actions were wrong. I’m not saying that she shouldn’t be angry and not punish them, but paired with proper discouragement of wrong behavior and encouragement of good behavior would be more effective, especially since her children are quite intelligent and would probably be more receptive to punishment paired with explanations.
I agree with you. I hate when parents dislike children fighting. They all said it’s bad but in fact, they only think it’s troublesome. I’m also a child once, and tbf, children really tend to fight. I was taught to fight back, specially since I’m a girl. I’m also taught that I have plenty of brothers, so yes, a fight always end up in a group fight. And in my experience, fighting back not only prevent bullying, but also create friends. Children are forgetful and doesn’t understand bullying. I hit you and you hit me, I won this time and later this brat will still pull me next time. Teaching children not to fight actually tend to teach them to be afraid to be in trouble and have repressed resentment (after making my enemy cry in kindergarten, I don’t care about him anymore). And in my experience, you’ll easily get bullied that way. Not that I’m victim blaming, and as I said children don’t understand bullying. Perhaps it our animalistic instinct that let us find weaker ones. In my opinion, it’s good to teach to fight back and stand for yourself. The only concern is only to teach children not to be brutal. Like I fight a lot with my friends and have hated ones, but I know throwing stones is bad or that no pushing in stairs, etc. Afterall, kids fighting isn’t actually bloody and sometimes, adults only make it complicated.