The Social Development Department is making amendments to the Children’s Act that would make it illegal for parents to hit their children at home.
When this law finally comes into place parents will be forced to find more creative ways to discipline their children.
I was very naughty as a child, and my mom believed in bending the tree while it’s still young.
So this positive disciplining stuff is foreign to me.
I asked a few of my friends for some suggestions on how to discipline a child in a positive disciplining manner.
They all suggested scolding, but, speaking from experience, when a parent shouts at a child the words usually go into one ear and out the other.
Giving them extra chores? In the community that I come from your parents provide for you, and children do all the cooking and cleaning as a sign of gratitude.
Grounding them and taking away their privileges, like TV, video games or cellphones? They will just repeat the naughty deed after you have given them back their toys.
Then there is the famous “taking time out” and sitting in the “naughty corner”.
A spanking gives the threats we throw at our young more substance.
When asking your child to pick up their toys there has to be an “or else you’ll get a hiding” sentence looming around somewhere, for them to take you seriously.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not encouraging parents to give their children beat downs; although my mother’s hidings set me on the straight and narrow, maybe it’s time for South Africans to move into an era of no corporal punishment.
