Parents of Schoolgoers  Discussion Forum

There are different schools of thought on spanking your child. Some radically oppose any form of corporal punishment, while others believe in the adage Spare the rod, spoil the child. While it is true that children need to be disciplined and spanking does help achieve that end, studies have proven that children who have been subjected to corporal punishment have low self-esteem and grow into insecure individuals.

Spanking is the means to an end which is discipline. So wouldn't you rather find a way to discipline your child without resorting to the rod

Analyse your personality

Many parents have a short rein on their temper and the child bears the brunt of their fury. Lose your temper too often, and your child ceases to respect it or you. Leave the discussion for later when both of you have calmed down.

Do you get angry often? Are you short on patience? Share with us!
vidhya replied. Think before u hit a child is 100% true. But the kids test our patience and push us to the extent of hitting them. I have a 5yr old daughter and a son who is 2. The elder one teases the younger. I know she thinks it a game seeing the younger one screaming and crying like mad. We keep telling her not to do and when he retaliates will be difficult for her to handle. Though we explain her first and then warn her and the next is to raise our hand in anger & the last thing is to hit her. Other than this she is an adorable kid who sometimes behaves like a grown up one in helping me. I feel bad later hitting them and cuddle them and say mama doesnt want to hit u. U behaved badly and u should not do anything bad. shraddha replied. It is very good for saying thatThink Before You Hit. but difficult practically. We working parents ate at home for less time and in that time only we have to teach them and see their progress. But these kids know TIME PASS very well. They want to play all time. Then comes dinner time, play, computer, TV but at no time studies.

JAGDISH replied. I think spanking should be rare and should mark out unquestionables like bad word, breach of limits, hitting others. If you make it a way of life, the child is under a constant fear of being hit. The child should be given a fairly long rope to explore, experiment, figure out, learn.. Though sometimes it means you have more cleaning at your hands.
The limit of this rope i.e. freedom is set by the strict donts, marked by a hit. Needless to say it follows a futile warning. anjum replied. It is true that we should not hit children , but todays kids try your patience till the end , even for parents at times it is difficult to control there anger with kids, what i think should be done tell them if this is done next time you will not be allowed to go out to play or what ever they like the best should not be given but at times i have seen this with my child who is 5 yrs old when we punish him this way he is ok for few days but then he does it again and then what i do is i just lift my hand high up and tell now you will get a spanky if you immediately do not hold your ears , he gets so scared that he does it imm. but parents when your child does this do not laugh at him or smile or cuddle him for in this position he/she will look very adorable but then later they will not listen to you . Sometimes when my hand is uncontroable or i really loose my temper with my child i slap the pillow first and at this stage he understands very cleary that if he moves he will get one spank . But to all of this i will say kids r born actors they act better then the real actors of today. Raman replied. Hi

I think it is wrong to hit the child. It makes him immune to any kind of disclipining methods u might use later on.

Distracting a child is the best in small children.

And in older kids reasoning and talking out is the best.

Say it rather than act it out.

And most imp...behave the way you want your child to. alpana replied. i think children should be hit Very Rarely, and for some particular act you never want them to repeat. For example, if you hear your child saying a bad word, you warn him and tell him to stop saying it but if he doesnt listne, just hit your child once. he will stop immediately! Mohini replied. I think its really bad to hit the child. If a mother is short tempered, then this is somehing which she has to improove on. Why should the child suffer for her bad temper?