On Saturday, after a rather particular unpleasant moment between the boys, I gave my oldest son a college-ruled piece of paper and told him he had to write “I will not hit my brother” once on every line.

As he started to work, I took his younger brother out of the room to assign him his own punishment.

Yes, it was one of those “everyone is wrong” sort of moments.

I went back to check on my oldest. He had written “I will not” on every line.

He glanced over his shoulder at me, then started back at the top line and wrote “hit my brother” on it.

I sighed and walked away.

Of all the ways that I thought that punishment could go wrong, I never dreamed it would end with him grinning to himself as he wrote “hit my brother” over and over again.