Child Discipline Do not Touch That Rod Unless Absolutely Necessary

Punishment is as necessary as love. However, if you go for the rod at every instant, it is going to backfire on you. Your child will no longer be afraid of the rod and no matter how much you hit them, they are not going to behave as you would like them to. I am not suggesting that you spare the rod completely. Instead, you should only use the rod as a last resort.

It is necessary to know that children are not able to distinguish between right and wrong, at least up to the age of 10. As such, if you take the rod at every instant you are going to discipline, the child is going to feel that you do not love him/her instead of learning that what he/she did was wrong.

The very first thing you must do when disciplining the child is to make the child understand why he/she should not be doing. You will need to repeat a few times before the message registers in the mind of the child for lifetime. This means that you need to be consistent in your message. Every time the child repeats the mistake, you need to correct it by showing and telling the right way of doing things or what he is doing wrong.

The next form of disciplining should be in the form of confiscation. You can take away a favorite toy or forfeit the cartoon time for instance. You must still follow with telling the child as to why you are doing so. This helps to register the message in the mind of the child.

If nothing else works, then comes the time for you to use the rod. However, always be sure to make up to your child once the discipline session is over. You need to tell the child that you are upset and you disapprove of the thing he/she did. You need to remove the feeling from the child that you punished him because you do not like him/her. This way, your child will learn that you love him/her as much as you did earlier and it is the behavior that caused you to discipline.