babble » blogs » Strollerderby
Strollerderby
What’s the Best Punishment For Kids?
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
What do you do when your kids misbehave? A poll by the self-proclaimed “World’s Strictest Parents” on Country Music Television’s new reality show suggests that 80% of parents – or at least 80% of parents who visit the “World’s Strictest Parents” website – favor punishing misbehavior in children by removing privileges.
The poll comes on the heels of new research indicating that a “tough love” approach to parenting serves children best. The “tough love” study found that kids benefited from hands-on parents who set and enforce limits. It did not say anything about particular discipline methods parents should use.This new poll, conducted by the TV show “World’s Strictest Parents” on their website, comes to the not-at-all scientific conclusion that most parents prefer to punish teens by taking away privileges when they misbehave or are “lazy”. The other poll options were “yelling” and “giving more chores”.
It’s probably a good sign that “spanking” or “hitting” did not even appear in the multiple choice list. Sadly, it rated a whole segment on the Today show last week. In case you haven’t gotten the memo yet: don’t hit your kids. An increasing body of evidence shows that corporal punishment not only hurts kids, it doesn’t work.
Some parents might opt for “none of the above” in managing their kids behavior. Alfie Kohn, author of Unconditional Parenting, advocates skipping all punishment and reward in favor of what he calls “love reason”. This approach puts time outs and revoked privileges on the back burner in favor of communication and fair choices.
Most of us start out here, but when the happy, loving methods don’t work (say, around the time your kid turns two) we almost all resort to at least a little yelling.
Even the World’s Strictest Parents think that’s a bad idea: only 3% of them voted for it as the best way to manage kid’s behavior.
Go Back To Strollerderby
2 Comments
Ri-chan commented on Nov 22 09 at 4:56 pmI’ve seen that show “World’s Strictest Parent’s” and they are by NO means even CLOSE to being the strictest parents in the US, let alone the world.
PDeverit commented on Jan 03 10 at 11:29 pmChild buttock-battering vs. DISCIPLINE:
Child buttock-battering for the purpose of gaining compliance is nothing more than an inherited bad habit.
Its a good idea for people to take a look at what they are doing, and learn how to DISCIPLINE instead of hit.
I think the reason why television shows like “Supernanny” and “Dr. Phil” are so popular is because that is precisely what many (not all) people are trying to do.
There are several reasons why child bottom-slapping isn’t a good idea. Here are some good, quick reads recommended by professionals:
Plain Talk About Spanking
by Jordan Riak,The Sexual Dangers of Spanking Children
by Tom Johnson,NO VITAL ORGANS THERE, So They Say
by Lesli Taylor M.D. and Adah Maurer Ph.D.Most compelling of all reasons to abandon this worst of all bad habits is the fact that buttock-battering can be unintentional sexual abuse for some children. There is an abundance of educational resources, testimony, documentation, etc available on the subject that can easily be found by doing a little research with the recommended reads-visit http://www.nospank.net.
Just a handful of those helping to raise awareness of why child bottom-slapping isn’t a good idea:
American Academy of Pediatrics,
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,
Center For Effective Discipline,
PsycHealth Ltd Behavioral Health Professionals,
Churches’ Network For Non-Violence,
Nobel Peace Prize recipient Archbishop Desmond Tutu,
Parenting In Jesus’ Footsteps,
Global Initiative To End All Corporal Punishment of Children,
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.In 26 countries, child corporal punishment is prohibited by law (with more in process). In fact, the US was the only UN member that did not ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Add your take:
Note: Babble is a supportive, diverse community. We encourage a range of opinions,
but any unduly hostile comments will be removed.
Comments are delayed up to 15 minutes
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Wendy Michaels 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
The Walt Disney Company supports Babble as a platform dedicated to honest, engaged, informed, intelligent and open conversation about parenting. However, the opinions expressed on this site are those of individual parents/writers and do not reflect the views of Disney. In addition, content provided on this site is for entertainment or informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or safety advice.
2