Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Discipline Dangers

Perhaps you have heard the story of the local man who caught his stepkids stealing. He then made them stand on the street corner with sandwich boards announcing their misdeeds for all to see. This admittedly unique method of discipline prompted three calls to the police, wondering whether the man was abusing his children or otherwise breaking the law. He wasn't.

But the incident left me wondering. Has anyone ever called the police to complain that a parent wasn't disciplining their child? I think the children who aren't punished for stealing will cause our society far more problems than those who are punished.

4 comments:

gopfolk said...

AMEN!!

Anonymous said...

Time will tell how being publicly humiliated will affect these children. I'd say it is too early for "AMENS" and kudos.

Denis Navratil said...

You are right anon, time will tell. But time also tells what happens to children who are not disciplined by their parents. The time is up for many of them who are now filling up our jails.

If I had only two choices (I realize that I have more) under similar circumstances, I would choose to publicly shame my son rather than to ignore the infraction. I think the long term dangers associated with no discipline are far greater than the possible effects of public shaming. Basically that was the point of my blog entry.

Anonymous said...

What strikes me as odd is that rather than talking to the kids, perhaps enquiring about what they did and whether they had learned a lesson, 3 people chose to complain to the police about the parent. So much for it takes a village?