What is the cost of harmony these days?
It is a common fact that misbehavior requires a degree of discipline in order to correct. While punishments are not made for the benefit of the parent, it is too common for children to misinterpret the disciplinary sanction as a corrective measure.
Meet the “Wheel of Doom”, a silly little iPhone application that gives users a roulette wheel of punishments ranging from simple measures such as taking a “time out”, to seriously devious ones such as “No Videogames”.
The app is not meant to help come up with punishments; after all, it does not take a creative mind to come up with “No Dessert”. Instead the app is intended to be used as a buffer for the parent.
It is important for children to understand that it is not by their parent’s hands that they are being punished, but through their own misdoings. However, when parents have to enforce a punishment, children will direct their anger at the parent, thereby losing perspective of the situation. Too often children will hate being told to “go to bed early” and will just keep hating the parent because of it. Having the application will give the children something else to blame for the misfortune of not being able to watch TV (or whichever punishment they receive).
For 59p, this is still a very expensive application. All it contains is a single rotating wheel and multi-colored panels –hardly anything a developer would have problems creating. While the concept is ingenious, there are plenty of other ways to properly discipline a child.
The bottom line, get this app only if you feel that you really need it. Despite the sense behind the idea, there is also the fact that parents should learn how to properly discipline their children without the use of contraptions.
Tags: Apple-iPhone, Apple-iPhone-3G-S