Would Laurie's mother punish him? Why or why not?

From your question and the reference to
Laurie as "him", I assume you are asking this with regard to the story "" by
. In this story, Laurie is a precocious kindergarten student with a classmate named Charles. As
it turns out at the end of the story, the author leaves the reader to assume that  Charles is a
character Laurie made up to take the blame for his misbehavior at school.

One
would assume then that Laurie's mother would punish him for the acts Charles supposedly
committed, and which Laurie told his parents about, once she realizes that it was Laurie and not
Charles that committed them. However, throughout the story the author paints Laurie's father and
mother as weak characters who do not pay much attention to their son's behaviors. Though she
states he is rude and admits he misbehaves, she takes no action to help him correct these
behaviors. Therefore, either for these minor day to day infractions or for the more serious ones
that Laurie accused Charles of committing at school, it does not seem likely that Laurie's
mother would punish him.