Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site olivej.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxj!houxm!whuxlm!akgua!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!hplabs!oliveb!olivej!greg From: greg@olivej.UUCP (Greg Paley) Newsgroups: net.kids Subject: Re: How to discipline short of spanking Message-ID: <270@olivej.UUCP> Date: Wed, 9-Jan-85 13:43:50 EST Article-I.D.: olivej.270 Posted: Wed Jan 9 13:43:50 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 12-Jan-85 06:24:28 EST References: <286@ho95b.UUCP> <858@amdahl.UUCP> <859@amdahl.UUCP> <524@astrovax.UUCP> Organization: Olivetti ATC, Cupertino, Ca Lines: 23 I thought Ed Turner's article on discipline was excellent. The point about the necessity of being consistent cannot be overemphasized. Some of the worst brats I've seen (excuse the expression, but I don't know any other way to put it) have been the result of parents who laugh at a particular offense at one moment and heavily punish the same thing at another, or, alternately, who continually spout a stream of empty threats. I'm not going to go into the argument of whether or not spanking is an effective means of discipline (we do it, but it takes a major offense, potentially harmful either to the child himself or someone else, to warrant it) but I have no hesitation in saying that if you threaten to spank and then, despite this, the child persists in whatever he shouldn't be doing, you have to go ahead and carry out the threat. Otherwise the child loses all respect for you and your authority and, worse, loses his self respect since it will appear that his actions have no particular importance one way or the other. - Greg Paley