Parents, how do you/did discipline your kids and how were you disciplined by your parents ?

Question

The worst punishment I ever received was a slap from my mom n dad and no, it did not leave me physically scarred or emotionally damaged. What it did teach me was that never to do anything that would get them so mad. I think this refrained me from trying to smoke/drugs fearing that if they ever found out....

I dont have kids yet.

Answer 1

I was grounded from seeing my boyfriend.  Grounded from going out after school. Big whoop.  The worst punishments I received was my mom giving me the silent treatment.  So immature of her, but it always crushed me when she didn't talk to me.  And she wondered why I never wanted to share anything with her or talk to her about anything.  If she couldn't open up to me about why she was mad or upset, then why would I want to open up to her?

Answer 2

I was spanked and yelled at and told to sit in my room and think about what i did until my dad got home. I was very young and often did not understand why i was in trouble. I make it a point to always explain to my 3 yr old daughter why she is being punished. We use time outs to calm her down and allow US to calm down and that really works well for us. She is pretty well behaved so we are lucky, but ive always made sure that communication is used so that she always understands.

Answer 3

I was spanked (with a belt, no less!) growing up, if I screwed up badly enough (and I did, frequently).  

My kids have all been spanked, but only until about 5 or 6 years old.  At that point, grounding, the corner, no tv and no desert start to become more effective punishments, and are preferable, in my opinion.  

A word about spanking - I had two hard and fast rules about spanking.  First, I never did so when I was angry.  I would send the kids to their rooms if I were mad, and wait until I calmed down, and then administer the spanking.  Two, I never administered more than three good swats.  I figured that three was enough to hurt but not enough to harm, and the sting lasts long enough to provide additional prods at memory.  After being spanked (or later, serving their time or whatever), then the ofense is forgiven, and we lavished a little extra affection to the culprit.  Just to let them know that they were loved, and the punishment wasn't anything more than a reminder not to do whatever it was again.  It's also very important that exactly what the punishment is for be explained clearly and calmly.  No sense punishing a kid for something they don't understand is wrong.  

My five kids are well behaved, have made good choices, generally, and have yet to s***w up badly.  They don't bring policemen home with them, they don't steal or vandalize, and they're generally respectful of their elders.  I'm very proud of them, and I'm not the least ashamed of our punishments.

Answer 4

I was told no....once. If I didnt listen, I got spanked. If I still did whatever I did, I got spanked again.....and again....and again. When my brothers and I got too big for my mothers spankings to be effective, we would get the belt, wooden spoon, or the metal ladel.

With my own son, he gets told no....all the time. I try spanking him, but at age 2, the hardest I dare spank him, so that I myself dont feel like I am abusing him, isnt hard enough to make a difference with him. I am trying to learn how to better discipline my child because I refuse to spank him with anything harder than my hand. I am not going to abuse my son.  

Answer 5

I honestly don't remember a single punishment from my childhood.  

My parents (and older brothers & sisters) supervised us, acted as role models, kept us safe & taught us how & why to make good decisions in our lives.  Sure, there were, sometimes, lectures.  And, we were very involved in the Catholic church, so were sure to be told when our behavior would be disappointing to God or the priests or nuns.  And, we would lose the opportunity to go with my big sister on fun outings if we were not being pleasant & polite.  

But, mostly, we were trusted to be intelligent enough to desire to make good choices and, when we didn't, were helped to see how our choice was either impolite or unsafe (and expected to correct any wrongs that we had done).  We were encouraged to take pride in ourselves & our family, as responsible people who do good in the world.  

Take church & God out of all of that (replace it with a responsibility towards our fellow man, if you need to) & that's pretty much what we're doing, too.  

Answer 6

My parents always disciplined with a punishment that fit the crime. For instance, my sister got caught shoplifting Christmas presents once when she was about 14...my parents had her not only go back into the store the next week with an apology letter but she also had to donate part of her Christmas presents to charity. I really feel blessed coming from a home that handled discipline well and as a team. I haven't had my little one yet, but I plan on using the same discipline as my parents.  

Answer 7

I was very lucky, I had two older brothers. I saw them ``get it``, so I was smart enough not to get caught like them.