Child punishment

Should a child be scolded? Does the parent of a child have the full right to beat a child? Does the elder brother or sister have the right to beat younger one because of a bad display of behavior? Does the teacher in school have the right to punish and beat children?

This is what we will be taking a look at.

I grew up in Nigeria, in Yoruba land to be precise and I am very used to seeing children being woefully beaten by parents. I have in a lot of occasion seen elder brother or sister beating a younger one. I have seen particular teachers striking fear in students and in fact some certain teachers can not do without holding a cane. Is it supposed to be this way? Should a child not be beaten at all? Or should a rude and disobedient child be reported to the police for proper discipline 😂?

In my own view, parents should be allowed to scold and punish the child when something wrong is done. The severeness of the punishment should be based on the gravity of the offense. The child should not be beaten for a minor offense. The parent is expected to decide wisely which offense is punishable or not.

We can agree that the way of punishing a male child should be different from that of a female child, especially girls in puberty stage. A man once carelessly and blindly beat his 15 year old daughter and as a result caused an injury to the girl on her breast which eventually landed the girl in the hospital causing the father to spend cash on her treatment.

Also, children should not be beaten or punished at every punishable offense. The parent should often talk to the child based on mother or father to child relationship and try have a conversation. The idea of always beating a child could cause the child to be very stubborn and used to being beaten. The child should be made to see the flaws in the attitude and behaviors being corrected on.

You can sometimes correct based on the mood of a child. Overlooking an offense and bringing it up for correction when the child is happy also works well. You can just overlook an offense at a time, get your child in an happy moment and then remind him or her of what he or she has done. At this moment, the child is ready to listen and more likely to change the wrong attitude because of the present good moment. In fact, the child will feel loved and happy to have you as parent. This method however, should not be used always.

The two parents should be in agreement when correcting the child. It is very bad for the husband to raise up a hand of correction, only for the wife to raise it down or for the husband to get mad at his wife for punishing the child for a wrong done. Sometimes, either of the parent may feel the child is being wrongly punished or over-punished for the offense. This should be communicated wisely and as soon as possible to the other partner without the knowledge of the child. Raising protest on a child's punishment in the presence of the child will give the child more encouragement to do what is wrong. It's even worse that some parents fight and insult each other on this matter of child punishment. It happens when one of the parents is either too strict or too loose and pampering.

As much as I support a child being punished by parents, I hate every form of child abuse, especially a violent abuse on a child. The parent and everyone else should shoulder the responsibility of eliminating violence and abuse in the society and this project starts at home with their sons and daughters. Do not beat angrily, but rather with love that the child might change. Beating a child in anger could lead to serious regrettable and avoidable injury. This must be taken note of.

Check out for my next posts on the part of siblings and teachers in child punishment.

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Thanks for reading.