Parental Discipline-A Lost Art

[shopgirl1]

Being in retail so long and not being a parent myself, I have carefully observed years of parent and child interactions and I have to say that I'm not all that happy that things are going in a positive direction.

When I was young and misbehaved, I was yelled at or spanked. Now I have to say that this type of discipline changed who I was in a positive way. That type of discipline actually served myself and my brothers positively. Now, parents say whatever they want to their kids, kids say whatever they want to their parents and to them its perfectly normal. Parental discipline is far too linient nowadays. Parents really spoil their children whether it comes to clothes or books. When I observe children unattended, especially in a store, it makes me furious. One parent or both parents are either totally obsorbed in themselves or looking for their own purchases that the kids are totally forgotten. If the child happens to be running around or misbehaves, absolutely nothing from the parents. I think that they prefer to talk to their children like adults and not bother to pinpoint what they are doing wrong. These kids fish out the type of lines to their parents that would get my face smacked or washed out with strong soap. A child won't have a heart attack if he or she gets disciplined with a spank or a good smack across the face. It would change them for the better. I think that most children test their parents to see how much that they can get away with. Seeing this type of interaction on a daily basis does not make me anxious to go out, get married and have a child. Just the opposite. The funniest thing I have seen is a child with an expensive cell phone, when I just got my first one a couple of years ago.

I know that I am going to get tremendous flack for writing this. It is only an observation for someone on the other side.

[hawkchick11]

I'm not going to give you any flack because I agree with you.

I spank my son when he does something wrong/that can hurt himself or someone else. He gets put in time outs. Yeah I talk to him like he's older (he's only 2) but he understands me. If I tell him that he has to be good to get a treat and he isn't, he doesn't get the treat.

I had a lady at a restaurant this weekend ask me how I got my son to be so well behaved, while her 2 year old and 5(?) year old ran around screaming, throwing things and just being big pains in the butt. I told her I don't let him act like her kids, and if he does, he gets his butt spanked. She freaked out on me, saying it was horrible to spank children, blah blah blah. I told her if that makes me a bad mom, so be it, at least my child is well behaved and listens to me.

[Slytovhand]

We've got a nice little debate about this subject over in Fratching, if you want to add your thoughts there..... (and some not so nice little debate about the subject as well....)

Slyt

[freeatlast]

I believe that there is a definite difference between spankiing and beating children. When my daughter was little, she was spanked if the situation warrented. As a result, I could take her anyplace and she would not embarrass me. She knew what behavior was acceptable and what was unacceptable. When I was buying groceries in Wal Mart on Friday, a child was screaming non-stop at the top of her lungs. When I passed the family, mommy was telling her "If you don't stop grandma will take you out to the van. Is that what you want?" The kid continued to scream for what seemed like forever. It was so bad that other people could apparently see that it was making me crazy to hear it. They were commenting that they needed to take the child and leave before they were ganged up on by the rest of the customers who were really tired of listening to the little pwecious. Silence was definitely golden once they left the store.

[Evil Queen]

Well, I'll give you flack!

Just kidding. I agree with you, Shopgirl. When I was a kid, my Dad used a belt, Mom used an open hand, both to the butt. Never to the face or anywhere else. That's just wrong. A thwack to the ass is what a lot of kids need and $diety Help me if I don't lay my hands on my bosses kids...

His kids irritate me.

[Bright_Star]

Sometimes it takes a good swift kick in the ass to make a child behave. That may not be "politically correct" nowadays BUT if you're over 30 then more than likely you've had your butt spanked a few times when you were a kid.
This "anything goes" mentality nowadays is just letting kids do what they want-however way they want-without specific boundaries set by the parents. & when those "little darlings" wind up in legal trouble then guess who gets blamed 1st? It all starts & ends with the parents.

[Talon]

The parents of the kid I pulled off the skates turned to him and started on HIM about what I did to their son. He just grinned and said, "If that had been me I'd have gotten a spanking too. Maybe YOU should start spanking your son, unless it's just too hard for you to actually be parents. C'mon, Mom. I'll buy you a coffee."

LOL

Your son is made of pure concentrated hyper-enriched EVIL. And it's awesome!

[Evil Queen]

Your son is made of pure concentrated hyper-enriched EVIL. And it's awesome!

Now with more caffeine!

[Sliceanddice]

im ok with spanking but only when it is warented mostly i believe the treat system works, just not with food 75% of the time.
A movie.
A tv show.
A book.
A toy.
something special can make kids do alot of things
hell a smoke bomb can make the biggest trouble maker in the world wear a dress and act like an angel.
....
I WILL ADMIT TO NOTHING!!!
but man those smoke bombs where worth it...

[tropicsgoddess]

Sometimes it takes a good swift kick in the ass to make a child behave. That may not be "politically correct" nowadays BUT if you're over 30 then more than likely you've had your butt spanked a few times when you were a kid.

Not necessarily. I'm 24 and when me and my little sisters were kids, we were spanked if we got out of line.

[protege]

No flak from me either. One of my neighbors has a 9-10 year-old son...who is an annoying little shit. He's constantly mouthing off to his parents, yet gets away with it because they won't do anything. I don't know about you all, but if I said things to *my* parents when I was his age...I know for a fact that my mother would slap me, and my father would pick me up by the *shirt* and say something like "Look you little shit..." They took the time to discipline me, and I turned out fine.

However, many parents don't do that, and then blame everyone else because their kid gets into trouble. It's the school's fault because he's not learning anything, society's fault for having things he wants to steal, etc. It's simply easier to blame everyone else than to put the effort in at being a parent. It's also not helped by people who can't keep their damn noses out of other people's business.

[Dark-Star]

Flack shmack! What's wrong with pointing out the 500 pound gorilla in the room?

There's a lot of reasons for the breakdown of parental authority. The busybodies and hankie-stompers who report parents as child abusers for giving a well-earned swat or slap come to mind. Don't forget the 'experts' who dispense wishy-washy advice that says "be your kids' friend." (WTF?!?)

I'm sure there is more to it; this is a complex issue. But it all results in one thing - demon children in stores and public with 'parents' that won't do SQUAT to make them behave. And to cap it all they fly into a frothing *rage* at anyone who dares to scold Snotleigh or Bratford for acting like demented monkeys on crack. I've seen it happen.

[jigshoes86]

Yeah, I'm youngish (21) but my parents were good at the disipline- my brother is 17 and even he got a spanking now and again - probably more than I did -- I was always quiet and bookish even from a young age, and well, he has always been mischievous and tested the boundries more than I did.

And I can safely and in all honestly say there is something to be said for a little displine. I can't tell you how many times my brother and I have been out in public- especiallly at amusment parks- and some little kid that has never heard the word "NO!" in his or her life is acting all kinds of wild and definatley in need of a good firm NO! and possible spanking is behind us and we've looked at each other with disbelief, knowing that had we acted like that as a kid in line we would have been yanked out of line so fast, and that would be the end of the day for us and a spanking would have waited for us at home.

Yeah, some of the kids that come into The Hut and proceed to be complete hellions only to be either completly ignored or told 'no' in a way that's like they are just half-heartly trying to show some form of discipline for the sake of apperances but you know that they don't mean it give me a bigger headache then just about anyother customer.

[Gruesome]

I am afraid to spank my son in public. One swat on the butt could get me arrested nowadays. Fortunately, I rarely need to do it. I got it into his head real early that the slow, menacing countdown from 5 to 1 ended in a hard swat on a bare ass if I made it to zero. Now I just start the countdown and he is being good by '3'.

Spanking is a tool and can be used properly or improperly like any other tool.

[Gurndigarn]

One of my former neighbours told me that she couldn't spank her son because she was scared that he'd pick up the phone and report her for abuse. So she let her son run absolutely wild and she started hiding out in her bedroom in front of her computer so she didn't have to deal with his crap.

One of my brothers actually did call the cops on my parents over it. The judge showed him pictures of actual child abuse.