How Should Kids Be Punished

It is the sole duty of the parents to discipline their kids so that they grow up to be responsible individuals. The behavior instilled in kids during younger years forms the foundation of their personality. Thus, it is quite important to make sure that children know what is right and wrong and also know that punishments will be given for those who commit mistakes. However, parents should also understand what kind of punishment should be given for what kind of mistakes. More often than not, a little yelling and overt anger is enough to get children back on track. But sometimes, certain issues happen that call for a little more than just yelling.

 

Punishment can be essentially divided into five broad categories: 

This is an effective discipline tool and helps in sobering down kids. In this, you charge a penalty from the kid for his mistake. For instance if the kid has broken a window, he doesn’t get allowance for a week. This not only teaches the kid the value of money, but also shows that you are serious about instilling good behavior and that, bad behavior will not be tolerated.

 

Verbal punishment should be controlled and too much of it is not considered effective behavior of parents. Verbal punishments should be limited to scolding verbally and showing resentment or making the child realize his mistake through verbal anger. But when you start ridiculing, insulting and taunting the child, it lowers the child’s confidence and self-esteem. Remember, children reflect everything their parents do and at a young age, they are more likely to imitate the parent’s behavior.

 

More often than not, frustrated parents, in a bid to discipline children, end up harming them physically. Physical punishment should be kept as a last resort and in fact should be avoided as much as possible. At the most, you can make the child stand in a corner of a room and give time-out. Never, ever hit the child. Even a mild spanking will indicate that violence is an accepted form of behavior. Though it may instill how serious you are, the child may withdraw from you due to fear.

 

This is an effective tool for disciplining kids and punishing them if they commit a mistake. For instance, if a child skips homework, he/she is not allowed to watch TV. You don’t let the child do what he/she enjoys until they learn from their mistake and make amends to improve. If the child throws a tantrum, simply ignore. They will get the message that tantrums don’t work!

 

Time Out Discipline
This is one of the mildest yet very effective tools of disciplining kids. Time out essentially refers to isolating the child for sometime to make him/her realize as to what they did was wrong and shall not be accepted by anyone. This kind of disciplining works on children as young as 18-24 months of age. In fact, psychologists say that young toddlers should be introduced to time-out at a young stage so that they are not taken aback by it as they grow older. The severity of time-out increases gradually with age. After the time out, the child is usually asked if he/she knows why the time-out was given in order to re-enforce the idea. If the child fumbles, you need to remind what went wrong and what is expected.