Let me gently pick where I belong (the "how would you go about it" side), hehe.
Disciplining a child is never an easy task to do because if after discipling the child, he or she fails to understand the reason why you disciplined him or fails to find the need, making a resolution never to get back to such things again, then it simply means you just had fun with whatever method you choose and didn't actually achieve the aim of discipline.
There are two popular methods I know that most parents; especially African parents use in disciplining their children;
- Corporal Punishment/ Physical Punishment
This is the act of disciplining most African parents use, lol. It involves disciplining a child not by the use of words but by various life-changing punishments 😂 like picking pins, kneeling down, flogging and some get to the extent of even starving you.
These methods creates an immediate impact on the child and he or she gets to receive the consequences of his wrongdoings immediately.
- Use of Words of Admonition:
This involves the act of disciplining a child with words, just like the name implies.
Here, it involves calling a child whenever he or she does something bad and trying to talk him through it; giving the child reasons from your vast knowledge and experience on earth why the path he is threading to will only bring them harm and destruction.
Which Method Is Better?
Is there really a "better" method per say? I really don't know but what I have come to believe is that there ought to be a balance in the use of both methods.
There are times when we should employ the physical disciplining measures and there are occasions we should employ the words of Admonition disciplining measures because each of them has got roles to play.
Beating up a child at every wrongdoings isn't always the best because not too long, the child gets to acclimatize himself with the beatings and it starts backfiring and eventually start thinking, "highest, mum will just beat me" kind of statements, however, sitting the child down atimes to let him see reasons why he shouldn't do something bad he did also leaves an imprint in his subconscious.
Personally, there are words my mum told me that keeps reverberating in my head at all times serving as guides to me even when they are not with me.
Another great way of disciplining a child is for you as a parent to be disciplined.
Children learn faster from what they see adults do than what they are told. This is why it gets easier for you as a disciplined parent to confidently tell your child to detest from something bad when you are not doing it.
In the early formative years, children are always naive into believing that whatever their parents do automatically is the right thing and right way to live.
In that case, imagine a parent who's a drunkard and smokes in his sitting room, the child automatically picks that as the right way to live and even if you as a parent tries talking him out of it, it becomes difficult because he learnt it from you.
On the long run however, disciplining a child is all a gamble because the child has the final decision over his or her life; the decision to be a responsible adult.
The Bible says, "Train up a child in a way he should grow and when he is old, he will never depart from it", that's to say in Essence, Catch Them Young!
Do not wait till it's deep-rooted before you start correcting your children however at all points, make conscious effort to see into what they are engaging in and hopefully, they make us proud tomorrow because the joy of every parent is to see his or her child turn out a responsible adult.
Thanks for reading and have a nice day 👍
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