Approbation – an act of approving formally or officially

There are times when young fairies tend to be a little wild.  They go about picking hardtack and using the gel inside it to paint leaves and rocks.  Taking the colorful puffs they fly about placing the colors all over the meadow.  They paint various animal pictures where ever they find a flat surface.  Eventually, though, they will get caught.  They are taken before the fairy courts which are full of disapproving adult fairies.  As the young fairies are brought before the courts, they have to face their parents which is never fun.  The parents tell them how disappointed they are in them and then they have to stand before the judges and face their punishment.  They usually receive approbation.  They have to go around where they painted the meadow and clean it up.  It takes several days because when hardtack hardens, it is almost impossible to remove.  They have to scrub for hours.  This takes the young fairies away from all their fun which makes them really unhappy. 

Approbation began several hundred years ago when the first disobedient fairy took off and colored up the meadow.  It was a shock to the whole fairy community.  It took the fairy leaders a long time to figure out how to punish the poor young fairies.  It was finally determined that they can clean up the mess that they made.  It did not go over too well with the ones who had to do the cleaning up, but it has been used as a punishment for the last 256 years.