text: Disciplining a child for doing something wrong is a tricky business. Coming up with a punishment that will teach a son or daughter not to commit the crime again but isn't harsh enough to scar them for life is tough. Often, the best schemes are ones that embarrass a child so that they are too mortified to consider falling foul of their parents again. Choosing the right punishment for a naughty child is a difficult business (picture posed by model) Others that work very well include the mind-numbingly dull chores, which drag on for a lifetime. Some cunning parents take away their child's favourite possession, like a book or a teddy, while others resort to a lengthy lecture. One thing's for sure, when most parents put their mind to disciplining their child, a trip to the naughty step starts to look like a weekend a way at Butlins. Reddit users have been comparing the most effective punishments their parents doled out when they were children and many of the schemes are both hilarious and genius . Parents often struggle to find the balance between a punishment being effective and not too harsh (picture posed by model) One Reddit user's mother used her son's naughty behaviour as a cheap means to improve her house. Every time that he stepped out of line - she set him a DIY task in her garden. Douglerful said: 'My mom loves her garden, anytime I did anything to piss her off I had to add to her garden. When I told her I was failing English back in high school my punishment was to build her a pond - it took me a solid week of work to dig it out, line it, shape it, fill it and then plant [everything] around it. 'She told me after that, that she really hated the 30 year old cherry tree in the yard and if my grades didn't improve I'd be removing it.' It turns out quite a lot of parents use their back gardens to enact punishments onto their children - another adult reminisced about how they were put to task on the lawn with some scissors. Some parents task their children with cutting the lawn with scissors (picture posed by model) Other boring tasks included making a child write a letter or essay on what they did wrong. Watchyourback said: 'My mom made me write apology letters from when I was little up into high school. Not only did I hate writing them, but she kept all of them so now they're great for a laugh.' Many mothers and fathers use their child's favourite toy or book as a way to guarantee good behaviour in the future. A user who calls themself futureblackpopstar said: 'I have an older brother that loved to annoy me. 'One day I was a bad boy so my parents took away my gameboy and put my older brother in charge of it for 2 weeks - the torment was real.' Another person's mother took a more drastic approach, removing everything from her child's bedroom. A user called imnotacrazyperson said: 'When I was younger, I p***** off my mom pretty good and when I got home from school my bedroom was empty. She took everything out, my TV, VCR, clothes, even my pillow and sheets. 'I had to do chores and earn back everything bit by bit, one chore for each item. 'I started with my pillow, blankets, sheets, and clothes so I could sleep and go to school the next day. 'It took me nearly two weeks to get everything back - I tried pretty hard after that not to get on her bad side too much after that.' Many mothers and fathers use their child's favourite toy or book as a way to guarantee good behaviour in the future (picture posed by model) Some parents applied the same logic to their child's wardrobe, taking away all of their favourite clothing, so that they had to live in embarrassingly uncool clothes. One user wrote: 'My 7 year old daughter who loves fashion f***** up real bad one day - we had tried every standard punishment and nothing ever seemed to phase her. 'Then my husband had the idea to 'ground her from fashion' and we made her wear solid coloured T-shirts with plain jeans and trainers to school with no accessories for two weeks... that one got her attention.' Many parents like to adopt the tactic of embarrassing their child, especially when it comes to a punishment after someone has been caught shoplifting. One user said: 'The first and only time I stole something I was 13 and got caught at a bookstore in NYC for stealing a couple of DVDs. 'My dad walked me around the city for hours forcing me to tell strangers on the way that I was a thief and to tell them what I had done. 'Almost everyone he had me tell on the subways and buses/streets gave me mixed reactions and disapproval. Ill never steal again.' Often, the best schemes are ones that embarrass a child so that they are too mortified to consider falling foul of their parents again (picture posed by model) For some, the solution to a pair of children who won't stop arguing seems impossible, but some appear to have found a novel solution to making them get along - force them together. Knight0fSpadessaid: 'I have a friend who, whenever she would fight with her brother, her parents would make the go into the yard and hold hands for two hours.' Another pair of arguing siblings were even forced to wear the same item of clothing. jrwrenosaid: 'Me and my sister had to share a big shirt, just enough to fit us in, but tight enough to restrict our arm within the shirt. 'We had to depend on each other to get s*** done, because we both lost the use of one arm. 'It only took once wearing it out to the Church potluck to be permanently shamed into obedience.' While many parents have come up with ingenious ways to make their offspring toe the line, the prize for cleverest of all us to go to user sixth_in_line, who has come up with a brilliant trick to stop her niece from watching too much television. She wrote: 'I have her convinced that TVs get sick and that you have to read to them before they get better.'
target: Choosing the right punishment for a naughty child is a difficult business .
  Some parents now resort to embarrassing their offspring to punish them .
  Tactics include DIY chores, embarrassing costumes and essay-writing .