Spare the rod...spank the child

I have never understood why some people frown at the idea of spanking children. Children are expected to misbehave simply because they are children. And that is basically because they do not know better and for this reason, they need to be disciplined from time to time. The discipline though has to be reasonable.

I am an advocate of physical punishment and spanking as a way of instilling discipline in children. Growing up, my siblings and I were never slapped, kicked or abused by our parents and I’ll like to think we turned out pretty ok (God bless my parents a million times and one). Did they beat us? Yes. But it was civilized beating #widegrin#you stretched forth your hand and received some strokes of the cane.

But more often than not, we were physically punished rather than spanked. And honestly, the punishment worked better because it was more painful and you could still feel the pains in your joints long after serving the punishment.

In those days, there were various punishments to choose from; kneeling down, riding an imaginary power bike, frog jump, stool down…the list is endless. Today, it has been replaced with punishments like a "time-out" chair. Seriously?

I think disciplining a child for a wrongdoing should be encouraged so that the child can know not to do it again. This way, we are able to raise well trained children who will turn out to be responsible adults and of great benefit to the society.

One has to be careful though when disciplining a child because there is a thin line between discipline and abuse. It is quite unfortunate that some parents/guardians do not know where to draw the line. 

The other day, I read about a teacher who forced her pupils to wash their mouths with sand. What is the meaning of that sef? How do you justify such a dastardly act on innocent children? If a teacher made my child do that ehn….hmmmmm, na dat day the teacher go know the meaning of ‘hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.’

Any "punishment" that leaves bruises, welts, scars or open wounds has gone beyond punishment and is cause for alarm. The weight and health condition of the child should also be considered when punishing. Some people are also of the opinion that they are the only ones allowed to spank their children.

So at what age do we begin to discipline a child? Some say 9 months. I say that is ridiculous. On the other hand, some parents/guardians do not know when to stop spanking their children. Otherwise how else would you justify a father who still undresses his 25 year old daughter to spank her? That one done pass spanking o.

There is never a right way to do a wrong thing. If a person abuses a child in the name of disciplining the child, it is wrong. It does not matter what wrong the child did. What then is/are the right way(s) to discipline a child?

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