Sunscreen

I don't understand why parents put so much effort into parenting in such a harmful way. It's so much easier to be peaceful. So, time for a personal anecdote.

I was playing outside with Joey a little while back and it was time to reapply sunscreen. 6 year olds have a reputation for being unable to see the consequences of their actions, and I could understand he would get burned and possibly increase his risk for skin cancer. He could not and got very upset when I told him he had to put more on. The conversation went something like this:

"Joey, you have to put on more sunscreen."
"no! I won't!"
"If  you don't, you will get burned and might get a really bad kind of disease"
"I wanna get burnt!"
"I don't think you do" (I knew he didn't mean what he was saying, at this point)

Then he started to run away from me, so I followed him, and picked him up, carrying him to the porch and the sunscreen. I could have punished him, and told him I'd take things away from him. Instead, I tried the following:

"You have two choices. You can put on sunscreen or go inside"
"none choices!" his way of saying neither
"I'm sorry, those are your only two. If you try to run away from me again, you are choosing go inside."
So, he ran away again, I picked him up again and carried him inside.
"okay, inside it is then"
"Sis, can I play with your 3ds?"
"Yes"
And he was happy, I was happy, and no one was hurting, crying, screaming, bruised, burnt, existing with increased risk of skin cancer, in a corner, restrained from enjoying themselves, or spoiled somehow. And it took less effort than forcible restraint or threat of physical punishment. It seems silly how so many parents would have said "If you won't put it on, then you will get a spanking/you are grounded/you aren't allowed outside again."
Be easy with your kids, and everyone is happier.