Discipline and the Single Parent!

When discussing parental discipline the topic can get very heated. A great many parents do not believe in spanking as a form of discipline while others believe if you take away spanking as an option you limit the effectiveness of discipline.

I’m not going to make any judgments about spanking in this post because methods of discipline are a parental decision. First off, reasonable people can differentiate spanking from beating a child and “Timeouts” are very effective for some children. My brother and I came from a household that used spanking as discipline. I don’t actually remember seeing my brother ever spanked but I got it a couple of times (and rightfully so). As young parents though we used different methods to discipline our children. I had to spank my son 2 times by the time he was 4 years old. The reason I remember it was because it hurt me to do it. From the time he was four I never had to spank him again. You see “Timeouts” wouldn’t work with my son, he enjoyed sitting in his room alone. My brother on the other hand used “Timeouts” because his children responded very well to that form of discipline. Now, many years later, his two kids and my son are all very well adjusted, respectful young adults. Parents need to treat their kids as individuals and discipline them when necessary with whatever method works best.

I’m no expert on this subject, but in my case because I clearly explained the rules and boundaries to my son and followed through with discipline that I explained would happen he quickly understood breaking the rules was counter-productive. Certainly, as kids get older the methods of discipline change. As they grow older it often is more effective to take away something that is of value to them, setting boundaries with clearly explained consequences is effective. What doesn’t work though is setting up rules that you won’t make stick. If kids don’t feel there will be any consequences to their actions no amount of yelling and threatening will work.

However you decide to discipline your child do it because you love them and want them understand proper behavior and that there are consequences to their actions.