Who's Yo' Daddy?

There's not much laughter today at the home of a Pasadena information technology specialist who has decided to auction off his kids' Christmas presents--and possibly dismantle the family tree--because the youngsters, ages 9, 11, and 15, have been naughty, not nice.

...The family discord has been in progress for about two weeks, said the man, attributing it, in part, to the laxness of previous discipline.

"It seems like we'd say what we were going to do, then bend and back off a little," the father, 41, said. ...It decayed to the point that groundings don't work, putting them in their room, timeouts don't have any effect."

The man said he and his wife announced the possible in a family meeting earlier this week.

...The boys pledged to reform, he said, but were back at their rowdy ways early the next morning.

...The next evening, a second family meeting was held to announce that the top level of presents--about $700 in video games--would be sold on the computer auction site. The oldest boy, the man said, responded with a challenge to carry out the threat.

That's when dad said, "No soup for you!"

I'm amazed. My parents were from the "Spare the rod, and you'll never have any fun" school of discipline, so, frankly, that the oldest kid is still drawing breath is a Christmas miracle to me.