Grounded

Kids getting grounded is sad. Unless they really deserve it, but then again even if they do deserve it, it is still sad to see them depressed at knowing that they disappointed you.
I have officially decided that my kids will never be grounded due to the face I received today for grounding Nick's cousin. (Mind you she was only grounded from the TV for disrespecting it, and throwing toys at it, and then leaving it on while she left the room for three hours.)

Here is a short list of things I will make my kids do, instead of grounding them:

1- slave labor- I figure they can work for their keep in odd jobs around peoples yards and stuff. Things like weeding, and other boring stuff. I will allow them to make money off of it, but the money will go straight into a college fund.

2-Cat litter box- I have always stated I will never have a cat again, but should I slip and get one anyway, my kids will clean up after it. Thankfully they will only have to get in trouble once a week, and that way my cat litter box will always be clean.

3- Writing letters to kids who have less, and donating and item to said kid- This one I used to have to do. I would have to write a letter stating to the kid that I understood that I had a lot more than them in life, and sometimes I don't appreciate it, therefore they may now have my____. (In my case I would have to give a brand new toy, or new clothes, or worse yet, go out and buy something with the little spending cash I had, and donate that!)

4- Fill two trash bags with things they don't "respect" - the bags would not be necessarily thrown out, but they would be stored until a later date, when respect for those items is in place. In my case, this happened a couple times and my mom pulling out the bags was enough for me to respect everything in the house.

5- Walk in someone elses shoes for a day- This one was one of my favorite punishments, and I know that this is really weird, but my mother had a map attatched to a tack board and we would throw a dart at the map, and research that places way of life. The kids did the research to understand that many places in the world don't have the same freedoms, or liberties that we take for granted, and mom would do the cooking. She would make one dish from the country, or city where the dart landed, and we would get to eat it. (I had an uncanny knack for landing on China and Japan, so mom tended to buy take-out for those lol)

I think punishment should be fun. I actually don't believe in "punishment" I believe in positive reinforcement, but leave that to the psycho in me. You have any good ideas on how I can punish my kids should I be crazy and have them?