“FAFO Parenting”

I was an FAFO parent before it was cool.
My children rarely tested it.
If the line was pushed, it was usually The Prodigal. My daughters were intelligent enough to learn by their brother’s example. The four of them have grown into contributing members of society.

I was the fun, silly, happy go lucky Dad. Although I had rules;
They couldn’t talk back or get snarky with me.
When ‘serious Dad’ said ‘No’, don’t ask again.
When I said ‘don’t do it’, you proceeded at your own peril, because there would swift immediate consequences.

An incident comes to mind with The Prodigal. He was about 6 or 7. He had a favorite toy, a plastic samurai sword and scabbard.
He slept with it, he couldn’t go anywhere without it. He was a ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle’.
At the time we had adopted a stray cat, or basically she adopted us. We found her with a litter of kittens in a basement window well. Once we gave away or got rid of that litter, she immediately got knocked up again. The little sleaze bag. Once the second litter was homed, we took her to get spayed, but I digress. I don’t remember which litter was involved, but The Prodigal was ‘whacking’ the kittens with his sword. Not hard, but that wasn’t the point. I told him it was cruel to strike animals and if he continued I would take his sword away.
He did it again, so I put it away for a week.
When I gave it back, I warned him that the next time he used it inappropriately, I would destroy it.
He hit the kittens again almost immediately.
I took it away again, then, while he watched, I took a sharp pocket knife, and cut it into little pieces. I then made him collected the pieces and throw them in the kitchen trash. He cried and sobbed the entire time.

According to @The_CINC , the four of them worship the ground I walk on, and she is just ‘chopped liver’.

I guess I wasn’t too bad of a Dad.

Picture; My little world is complete when all of my babies are together. I’m in my ‘chunky’ phase. About 280-290 here.