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WordTime · 07-03-2007, 10:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by violet

Hello, wordtime.

I know so many Christians who spank, not beat, their children.
These children are well balanced, loved, happy and well behaved.

I raised my first 4 children alone when I was very young and I spanked them.
I believe it is all about balance.
You have to teach your children, talk to them, listen to them, love them, spend quality time with them and so on......

I was a very young mother, 21, with 4 children and everyone in church, restaurants and stores complimented me on the behavior of my children.

They were both well behaved and happy and complete strangers saw this and would come to me with their disbelief and compliments, especially for me being so young with 4 such happy, well behaved children.

Hi Violet,

I have read some of your other posts and you sound like a wonderful Mother. Being so young, I know it must have been difficult. I'm sure now that you are older you have learned many new, better ways to discipline your children.

Here are some positive techniques that work well. If a child over 5 is misbehaving, send them into their room for "downtime". Go in about 2 minutes later and ask them to draw a picture about what they did wrong. Tell them when they are done to bring the drawing to you, sit down at the table and explain what they think they did and why they were sent for downtime (or timeout if you prefer the older lingo). With older children, they can write a short paragraph and look up scriptures that will help them behave in the future. Of course children under 5 won't have the patience to sit in downtime for very long. The best advice for those of us with younger children is to get at the child's level and make eye contact. Tell them what you expect and then take them out of the situation.

I think the reason downtime works so well is because we as adults take downtime. When we as grown-ups feel overwhelmed and unable to handle things, we take timeout. Shouldn't we be modeling this to our children and allowing them the same respect? Yes.

I think you are on the right track now, so keep going in a positive direction.

God Bless