Punished or consequenced?

I had a discussion with my twenty-one year old son today. When he was younger we changed the terms we used with him. We no longer "grounded" him or "punished him but “consequenced” him. More clearly stated we enforced the natural consequences to his actions.

His argument today was, why didn't you call it what it was.... a punishment. Our answer was....because it wasn't a punishment, but the natural consequence that you received for your actions or lack of action.

This got me thinking about consequence vs. punishment in teaching children to be responsible.

Consequence to me means the natural occurrence based on ones behavior. In trying to teach our children responsibility, we've tried to teach them that with their behavior comes consequences...some good some bad.

Punishment, on the other hand, means something inflicted by one person on to another. I completely understand why a child would feel that he is being “punished” instead of “consequenced” (action verb in our family) But I think it is very important that they learn at a young age that every action has a consequence as an adult and the sooner they learn that the law equally applies to them, the better off they will be now and later!