My son (8) spent last weekend at his friend’s house – his friend is the same age. He went over there on Friday morning with his clothes in a sports bag. The plan was for me to pick him up from there early on Sunday afternoon. When we got home on Sunday, he told me that they’d probably been playing too boisterously on Friday and hadn’t listened, so they’d had to go to bed as early as 6 pm. They had to put their pyjamas on at 5 pm, then they had dinner. My son had been told that if he didn’t want to do that, he’d have to be picked up. He didn’t want that under any circumstances. Shortly before 6 pm, they were in bed and the blinds were lowered. He said that it was actually quite a cool feeling having to go to bed so early. He’d actually hoped they’d have to go to bed that early again on Saturday, but they were allowed to stay up until just before midnight. On Saturday morning after breakfast, there was a lengthy lecture. His friend apparently gets this sort of punishment (no spanking) quite often. Last night my son asked me why I’m never actually that strict with him. As the conversation went on, I got the impression that he was impressed (not in a negative way) by these punishments. I’m a bit at a loss right now.