How Can A Parent Properly Discipline A Child

Name Instructor’s Name Course Date How can a Parent Properly Discipline A Child Introduction Parents have a wide range of roles in their children’s lives. For example, parents have to protect their children from physical harm and any other form of threat, parents must provide shelter, food, clothing and other life needs to their children and also discipline them. Disciplining a child can involve punishment because of a mistake committed by the child or simply guiding the child to have proper behaviors in the society. Through disciplining a child, the child will know how to obey rules and behave according to the ethics of the community. Also, in a family where children are disciplined, the relationship between children and parents is always cordial and full of respect. According to Jinot, (35-46, 2018), cases of indiscipline among secondary school children are on the rise. Jinot’s study is a sign that children’s discipline is deteriorating with time within our societies. The increase in disciplinary cases among children raises a lot of questions, for example, have the roles of parents changed in the society? or children are no longer being disciplined? Parents and other responsible people should know that discipline is a basic component of having future responsible people within the communities. As it stands today and in ancient days, the roles of parents have not changed. Parents still discipline their children using various means like spanking among others. The discipline parents give their children should be reflected in the way the children relate with others in schools, but currently, cases of physical abuse and other forms of abuses among school children are on the rise (Clark). From Clark’s work it can be noted that even though parents still discipline their children, the mode of discipline is not appropriate leading to poor discipline in children. Therefore, parents must look for an effective mode of discipline to ensure that their children are properly disciplined. The problem of Discipline among Children Poor discipline in societies is becoming a serious problem in the United States and the rest of the world today. Students are increasingly becoming unruly in class and the society, cases of students being bullied are becoming the order of the day (Brodsky). Students in public schools are increasingly becoming abusive, towards the public and fellow students. For example, in America, today cases of school gun shootings are on the rise. The gun shootings in schools are committed by school children against their fellow students posing a serious security challenge in schools. In public schools today, violence is becoming a serious problem in public schools both to the teachers and the public. The cause of violence is lack of proper discipline among school children. Since most of the disciplinary measures such as corporal punishments have been abolished in schools, it becomes so difficult for teachers to discipline children. Therefore the role of discipline is significantly left to parents. Parents are supposed to ensure that their children are properly disciplined. Methods of Discipline Employed by Parents on their Children According to Lerner, (2017), discipline goes beyond correcting misbehavior in children, it also influences children’s development. Discipline helps children manage their emotions, learn to follow and adhere to rules, become compassionate towards one another and learn to identify what is right and wrong. Parents in their attempts to have responsible children have used various attempts to discipline their children. Some of these attempts are physical punishments while others involve verbal communication. Whether the discipline method is physical or verbal parents always strive to get the most effective method of disciplining their children. Parents use spanking as one of the physical means to discipline their children. Spanking according to the research conducted by Gershoff and coworkers, (2012), is common among the blacks as compared to other races. The difference in rates of spanking amongst racial groups can be attributed to how different racial groups view discipline. Spanking of children is detrimental to children’s development and progress. Spanking in most cases is used by violent parents on their children. Children do not have a perception and cannot reason to know the magnitude of the wrong they have committed to be spanked, therefore, they will only grow rebellious to the parents and the society at large. The rebellion in the children will eventually make them aggressive and anti-social in the society; this will in return make children violent (Clark). The primary indicators of lack of discipline in schools and society are the escalated levels of violence (Lerner). Therefore, spanking promotes indiscipline to some extent and therefore should not be used. Proposed Way of Properly Disciplining Children Children are precious to parents and therefore, the parents must get the most effective ways of properly disciplining them. Some of the strategies being proposed are as outlined in the subsequent paragraphs under this section. The first step, parents must set rules governing the movements and actions of their children. The rules are commands telling the child what he/she must do and do not do, in the family. For example, a child can be instructed never to hurl abusive words to other children or never to act violently with other children. The set rules require consistency and firmness; in some cases, unnecessary love overwhelms parents to an extent that instead of implementing the disciplinary rules, they start going against them (Siegel and Welsh 464). For example, in families where there is only one child, parents tend to be lenient to the children, always giving in to the children’s demands. Leniency is will only give room to indiscipline cases among children and must be avoided. Therefore, effective discipline requires firmness in the way rules are followed in a family. The second step, instructions are essential to children’s discipline. Through instructions, a child's negative behavior can be controlled. The instructions parents give to their children should be calm and steadfast. The parents must not yell at their children while instructing them of what not do; yelling can only make the child emotional and defensive. Once a child is defensive...