Proper Punishment for Children

The ideas of punishment for children have come along way in the last 30 years or so. The punishments of the past, the belt or your parent's hand, has made way for time outs, and communicating to the child that their behavior is unacceptable.

Punishment must be age appropriate. As your child grows from infancy to a mobile time bomb, its time to full proof your house, put up the breakables, and make sure the cleaning supplies are well out of little ones explorations. Even at this age they will try you, as they reach for that DVD, knickknack, or anything you have decided was not for the child to touch. Simply remove it and say no; don't yell, just a firm.

As they get older, timeout comes into play, using a chair, step, or something where the child must sit and contemplate his/her actions. This works from about a year old to when they hit their teens. Then the fun comes. If you don’t complete assignments or miss doing your chores, there are consequences. The consequences are the removal of privileges, no car, no computer, etc. Are they into sports? Well, they will have to miss that game.

Punishment for kids has to be based on the problem. The consequence of miss behaving must be firm and the same each time.