Tymoot

Horrible punishment ideas

     

As an early childhood specialist, I'm appalled by some of the suggestions on here. Punish your child with a workout or healthy food? Great idea if you want your child to avoid healthy habits for the rest of his/her life because of negative associations. Same goes for making them read books in time-out. Learning should be celebrated and enjoyed at home, not used as a punishment. Destroy their toys? Don't be surprised if you see them destroying other people's property if they think someone needs to be punished - you're the one who taught them it was okay. Take your 'good' child out for a reward and encourage him/her to flaunt it around the 'bad' child, or let the 'good' one pick the 'bad' one's punishment? Perfect recipe for making your kids hate each other, not to mention causing inferiority/superiority complexes. Pretend to arrest your kid? You better hope your child never gets lost or needs a police officer's help, because cops are now too scary to approach. Giving your child a choice between two punishments, then using the opposite one? You have just undermined your child's sense of independence, confidence, and decision making ability. Force your son to wear a dress or something 'girly' around the house (but not for too long or in public, because they might start to like it)? Wow. Humiliation is never an appropriate discipline strategy, for starters. But you're also teaching him that not conforming to gender stereotypes is unacceptable, that being gay or just effeminate is wrong, and that sexism is okay (because the underlying implication is that girls, their interests, and their clothes/toys are somehow inferior). Some of the ideas are okay, but I can't endorse an app that with many developmentally inappropriate ideas. Time out should be about redirecting your child's attention, giving him or her time to calm down, reflecting on what caused the inappropriate behavior, acknowledging the natural consequences, and coming up with ways to behave more appropriately in the future -- not using fear, spite, embarrassment, and cruelty (whether physical or emotional) to squash your kid's spirit until he or she has no will left to rebel. Addressing the psychological reasons behind the misbehavior rather than focusing on eye-for-an-eye responses to the action will be much more successful in the long term, and you'll enjoy a healthier relationship with your child.