Creative Punishment

My two-year old daughter is one of the most stubborn children I have ever met, ever. I tried to put her down for a nap on our bed this afternoon (we do that so she and her sister nap in separate rooms), but she wouldn't have it. So I put her in the room with her sleeping sister because it is darker and the door is harder to open. Then I heard her trying to wake her sister up. I told her not to wake her sister up and she replied, "But I want to wake her up." No matter what I said, she kept repeating her reply. I just gave up and put her back on our bed. Miraculously she fell asleep. On top of all this, there is a baby jumping thing that she keeps getting in. We keep telling her to stay out of it because she is too big and could break it. Oh, and one more thing. She refuses to sit and eat dinner, so we have to excuse her and make her go hungry to bed. But it's no use. She does what she wants, when she wants, especially if it gets us worked up. She takes delight in that. So, I told my wife that I had an idea. What if we put her in a corner if she disobeys and threatened her that she would get a marshmallow each time she got up from her punishment. My wife looked puzzled. My theory was simple. She would likely get up so many times that the marshmallows would make her sick. Then the punishment would serve the dual purpose of getting her to obey and to dislike sugary treats. Or, disobedience might merit sitting the kids on the couch all day with unhealthy snacks and television. If they get up they have to eat more snacks and watch more television. The problem with this second idea is that you'd have to punish them for three or four hours at a minimum, depending on how much television and snacks they normally consume each day (I've heard the total average in American homes for television viewing by children is 6 hours per day! These people will obviously have to make this punishment a weekend event). Luckily (from my wife's perspective) we did not have to put any of these brilliantly visionary punishments into effect. As I said, our daughter fell asleep for nap. Then after dinner, we heard her voice in the other room yelling, "Help! I'm stuck! Please get me out!" She was stuck in the baby bouncing contraption. With the same sick delight with which she punishes us, we smiled and replied, "Not right now, we're eating dinner!" I'm not sure it taught her anything, but it felt so good to say.