Discipline and punishment are important pillars of education, but on the condition that it is done correctly. In this article, we present a smart way to discipline children that has been followed by many mothers and has borne fruit. The punishment is that the child learns from their mistake, not that we beat them and take out our stress and life pressures on them, then regret it later.
A smart way to discipline children
One mother says, “I have two children, 9 and 6 years old. I punish them a lot and get angry and shout at them, but with no benefit.”
I suggested to her to try punishment by choice.
She asked, “How?”
I told her, “By letting the child choose the punishment that they will receive.”
For example, when the child makes a mistake, we ask them to think of three punishments, and then we choose one of them to impose.
For instance, the child might suggest, “No phone for a whole day, not going to their friend’s house, or not watching TV,” and then the mother chooses one of these punishments.
If the child suggests three punishments that the mother does not agree with, the mother asks the child to think of three other punishments.
An ineffective punishment
This mother mocked me and said, “These punishments that the child chooses will not satisfy me.”
I told her, “The goal of punishment is for the child to learn, not for us to hit and abuse them, which is unacceptable.”
When you hit your child and shout in their face, you are not punishing them for their actions, but rather releasing your anger, stress, and pressure on them.
After a while, the mother became convinced and came to me to say that she had followed this punishment system and became much calmer, as did her children.
Disciplining Children
Before considering disciplining children, we must first determine whether the child is unaware of the mistake they have made or not.
If the child has made a mistake unintentionally or is unaware that it is a mistake, then we cannot punish them.
However, if they have committed the mistake intentionally and are aware that it is wrong, then they should be punished while applying the “Law of tree” in discipline and punishment.
And with that, we have reached the end of the article where we presented a smart way to discipline children, which is the method of choice. The child chooses their own punishment, and it is applied to them so that they can learn from their mistakes and not repeat them again.
