Discipline

When our children reach school age many parents eagerly and lovingly send their little ones off to kindergarten at the local school, be it public or private. We openly trust our children to receive a quality education and learn to function in society. What many parents don’t consider prior to enrollment is the potential impact on whether or not their child may become physically or socially aggressive.

Every parent faces the dreaded decision of which discipline method will best teach their children appropriate behavior. When asked most parents will tell you that instilling discipline needs to occur in the toddler years, but few can describe how. According to a recent survey from the Scottish Government more parents are choosing to simply ignore their toddlers bad behavior, stating that few parents actually viewed spanking as a useful tool.

Psychologist Elizabeth Thompson Gershoff, PhD, of the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University, looked at both positive and negative behaviors in children that were associated with corporal punishment. After collecting 62 years of data her findings may change how you look on spanking as a way of discipline forever.

There are more parenting know it alls on the net than can be counted and all of them claiming to know the best way to discipline a child. In fact if you typed in the phrase ‘child discipline’ you couldn’t filter through all the results in less than a couple hours. With all this advice why do so many parents claim they are frustrated because they don’t think their discipline methods are working?

Teaching our children to control their anger is perhaps one of the most important aspects of parenting, and maybe one of the hardest. A parent that has to face an angry child, especially when that anger is directed at them, knows this better than anyone else.

A large number of children in the American society are walking around on short fuses. Quick to retaliate with harsh words, insults and even violence. The adolescent world is quickly becoming paved with eggshells, leaving many parents concerned and unsure how to proceed.

“The key is to equip your child and prepare him for the time when you, his parents, will no longer be in the driver’s seat. Your child will take control of the journey, something he has always longed to do.”

Words from a wise parent? On the contrary, these are words from a strong willed child, turned responsible adult. While many parents face the challenge and overwhelm of handling their strong willed child, words like these can seem more like a dream. A reality far from their reach and that of their child’s.

I think one of the most predominate issues parents face in today's society is knowing how to handle their child's bad behavior. Our children are demonstrating a lack of respect to authority at younger ages each year, placing some parents in a position of having to battle aggressive behavior in children as young as 10. Where can parents turn to find the resources they need to be empowered and bring peace back into their homes?

reprinted with permission by Empowering Parents. For more information visit, www.empoweringparents.com

There is a new form of discipline out, and it's easier than you think. Or so the proponent of this particular discipline method would have you believe. The idea of this "new" method is to ignore bad behavior and effusively praise good behavior. According to the doctor recommending this method, even time-outs are damaging to your child.

Who hasn't driven under an interstate overpass and noticed graffiti scrawled on the bridge? Beyond being a public nuisance, graffiti costs our communities time and money because eventually someone has to pay to have the mess cleaned up. Guess who is paying? That's right, the hard-working taxpayers of our country. This is just one example of how discipline is important for our community as a whole. Focusing on the importance of discipline will help us build better families and communities.