Spare the Rod....

Do not hold back discipline from the child, although you strike him with the rod, he will not die. - Proverbs 23:13
Well the above was the scripture of the day for me and I had to share... How appropriate!
I will post a bit about discipline as it was a topic at my house yesterday. Everyone can offer free advise on how they discipline children (or as most people who are NOT parents can say what they would do if that was their child..Amazingly the people without children seem to usually think they could write a book on discipline)
I have two biological children and as children they were as different as day and night. One I could tell to do something and that pretty much was all it took- she would do it. While the other would always have to ask why and give a defensive reason as to why not... It is now somewhat of a joke as to how I honestly think I spanked her most everyday until she was in junior high -and now I realize it was to the point it obviously did not help ....
I have five grandsons and one granddaughter. The older boys range from 9 to 13 and I have been a big part in raising them all. I could count on my fingers the number of spankings I have given to all five of these boys.Not that they are perfect but they do know the limit and not to push it.
But the youngest boy (will be two in January) already reminds me so much of my oldest and I think his parents are going to have a long road ahead in the discipline department. He is much like my oldest- I think he will be defensive and probably smile and do whatever it was that got him in trouble once again. I sure hope he proves me wrong...

Times have changed! I just took a child development class and now they don't even recommend "time out" in day cares. They say timeout should only be to give a child time to calm down- not as a punishment.I am sorry but I feel children should be punished for inappropriate behavior. I would never even attempt to spank a child other than my grandchildren- but I also could not keep a child and not try to discipline them. All goes back to the Bible....

I was raised in a very strict home life. I still feel my dad was a bit to strict on us but I can promise he had our respect and we were well behaved. I often wish he had been the parent of my oldest daughter - I think she would have still been a handful for him.... (ha!)

We were made to all sit at the table together for dinner while daddy talked to mother about what happened at work that day. She would talk about what happened at home and we could chime in if we had something to add about our day. We ate whatever food mother had prepared and had to drink our milk before we finished our meal. To this day I hate milk- however I blame being made to clean my plate the reason I still feel I should eat it all -and am overweight! ha!!

On the bright side-in my case- the child who was the most rebellious,got the spankings daily and always seemed to be grounded turned out to be the most dependable, thoughtful person I know. She now teaches junior high school and I can promise has complete control of that class everyday. She is the mother of my youngest grandchild (and only girl) and heaven knows I hope her daughter has alot of her traits. But I still hope her strong will is not one of the traits she inherits.