Will Rickards
Storage Is My Life
Is there anything we non-spanking parents can do to compensate for the lack of a good spanking now and then?
If I couldn't spank my child, what would I substitute? I can't think of anything nearly as effective.
When you calm your child, what is the first thing you do? You touch them like a hug or holding them. Similarly a spanking can be just the appropriate discipline measure. Words aren't working at that point. And time outs only work for children who sit through them. But maybe your kid will never get there, every kid is different. Some don't challenge your authority.
But by far the #1 problem I see in parenting is not following through. If you establish a discipline for a behaviour you better follow through or face real difficulty in enforcement.
My opinion on spankings is only for direct defiance. Time outs for all other infractions. Kind of along the lines of the counting thing. But with my oldest who is 7 now, his infractions are different. So the discipline is different. Sometimes it is no wii for a week. Lose your DS, etc. Spankings are really only for a certain developmental period. If you are spanking a teenager, you're probably* wasting your time.
But I'll tell you one thing. Being the disciplinarian is the hardest part of being a parent.
* I don't have any teenagers yet - so I'll reserve the right to change my opinion later.