The Captive Bucket

Yesterday morning I asked Ricki to bring me an empty bucket and a mop, so that I could clean the kitchen floor. She point-blank refused, so I fetched it. Than I informed my daughter that since she wasn’t helping, nor cleaning up a mess of papers she had made, she would get no computer time. As I was getting the bucket, and she realized that a punishment would ensue (mind you, I HAD asked her three times to no avail), she offered to get the bucket.
“No”, I answered as I passed her room, “you are too late.”
A few moments later she grabbed the bucket, apparently hoping to “deliver” it and have the punishment rescinded. I felt that she needs to learn that waiting till a punishment is given is TOO LATE. For several minutes she held the bucket “captive”, until I threatened a further punishment. SHEESH. But I DID think that it was a pretty imaginative ploy…..