Discipline: Can the Way you Discipline Your Child Send You to Jail?

January 11, 2008

“Discipline has to do with teaching, and involves teaching your child right from wrong, how to respect the rights of others, which behaviors are acceptable and which are not, with a goal of helping to develop a child who feels secure and loved, is self-confident, self-disciplined and knows how to control his impulses, and who does not get overly frustrated with the normal stresses of everyday life,” as stated on www.keepkidshealthy.com.

While bringing a child up and trying to disciple her or him, we as parents have tendencies to spank or find a wooden spoon to use. Never did we think that using something could set us up for jail time had someone found out we were doing such a thing. Back in the older days parents would use belts to teach kids a lesson and the teachers at schools would smack kids on the hands with a ruler for disobeying the rules. So no one thinks twice when they grab for a spoon to spank their child.

My aunt used to have a wooden spoon sitting on her countertop for when my cousin behaved badly. One look at that and my cousin would run to her room. My aunt had broken many spoons on my cousins behind, but not in an abusive way. However, when my aunt spoke with someone about using a spoon, the woman said that she could turn in my aunt for child abuse because spanking with a spoon or a hand can be considered a weapon. In which my aunt replied, “I’d rather go to jail for trying to teach my daughter right from wrong than have her grow up doing drugs or ending up in jail herself.”

My mom never had a spoon, she didn’t need one. Not because I was an angel, but because she had hands. I got spanked for doing bad things; I also got time out and grounded, sent to my room and toys taken away.

Me on the other hand, I have been using another method. If my daughter pulls my hair, I pull hers and ask if she likes that, then tell her we don’t pull hair. We have to be nice.

So where do we draw the line? Can we still teach our kids to be good decent people without using “weapons”? Maybe not, but if we turned people in for spanking, than there would be no one left but kids in our society.

©COPYRIGHT 2008 ASHLEY VINCENT