Spinoff... gentle discipline & so on...

[Gavin&Brent'sMommy]

Okay someone mentioned gentle parenting, which made me think of gentle discipline... so all you crunchy/AP mommas, do you spank/believe in spanking?

[geckoed]

we don't think people are made for hitting.

[jennyofthemoon]

Nope. All living creatures deserve respect. Just as I don't allow my kids to hit treest and kick plants, they are not allowed to abuse each other.

On a side note, it really irks me when I see a parent pick up their kid who has just hit another child, whack them and say "don't hit". Talk about a confusing message!

[keegans_mommy]

We use to spank, believed it was the ONLY way to disipline but now we have totally changed!

I think the turning point for me was when I swatted keegan and he swatted me right back! It really, really made me think and I had a complete change of heart. So now we have changed the way we deal with correcting our children and it's helped in some ways and in others we have had to really get creative with consequences but there is always a way to deal with children who are testing their water, parents patience and with them growing up and learning along the way.

[Luv2bemommy]

I used to spank.. Seeing is was the way I was brought up, I really didnt know any better? Then I started reading on AP and such and I'm trying SO hard not to spank anymore.. I cant remember the last time one of the kids have gotten a spanking actually.. I do tend to yell alot though, thats something I'm working on..

[MamaStace]

DH and I agree not to spank. Sometimes, in anger (which is the WORST time to spank!) I have swatted dd's bottom. I've always felt awful later. I have a friend who spanks as discipline, and while it seems to work for her, I feel horrible and guilty and miserable after I've tried it. So we use time out. And I also find that I can 90% of the time defuse a situation before it gets to "punishment" level. I see a lot of myself in dd, and I usually hug her when she's getting upset and that helps sooo much. When I put her in time out, she sits for 2 minutes (1 minute for every year of her age) and then we talk about why she's in time out, what to do next time, and then she's "released" with a hug. It's gentle, humane and speaks at her level.

[Gavin&Brent'sMommy]

see we spanked DSS, once he was old enough (I cannot comprehend ppl who spank a baby) anyhow, not so much anymore, cause I hate it, thing is, once Gavin is old enough, I don't want to either, but I'm afraid hubby will say he's getting different treatment cause he's my own, (since Cody used to get spanked) I dunno how to approach it with him, course it won't be a concern for a few years but I was thinking about it lately

[offlikeapromdress]

I didnt read anyone's responses. But with our 3 yr old we spanked with hands (never objects like my parents) and when she threatened to spank me one day we decided it was time to do something different. so Im usually the disciplinarian b/c I have the patience. But when she does something or doesnt listen we get on her level and speak firmly but softly that it was a bad choice or whatever she has done. Then if that doesnt work she does get timeouts. Now that we have Sophia we are doing the same thing though its harder with a 1 yr old. We noticed that hitting her or spanking her increased her hitting.