#PubliclyDiscipliningYourChild

When I was about 4 years old I had to go to a work meeting with my mom.  I can remember it was my mother's pay day and that meant that we were going to eat at McDonald's.  Like any 4 year old, I was impatient and not looking forward to sitting in an hour meeting.  So I chose to express my dislike of my mom's work meeting by throwing a temper tantrum.  My mother had a way of dealing with temper tantrums...a belt.  My mother looked down at me and told me in a calm voice "You just wait to we get home."  At that point, I knew that our bi-weekly trip to McDonald's was cancelled. 

I want to point out that my mom chose to discipline me when we got home.  There are some parents that need to take note of this.  Lately, parents have had the bright idea of disciplining their children in front of a camera and posting it online to sites like Youtube.  Back a couple of months, a young man who had taken on the role of playing father figure decided to punish his "play" son on video.  He did not whoop the child on camera but you could hear the child crying off screen.  The "father figure" then shaved the boy's head and made him run physical drills outside.  In another case, a man recorded himself whooping his nephew after finding out the young man was in a gang (Unfortunately, in this case the young man was found shot to death, possibly linked to his gang affiliation).  I feel in both cases the men's hearts were in the right place, but the execution was poor (I purposely chose not to post the videos on here because I do not agree with their tactics).

There is a difference between discipline and humiliation. A child learns from discipline and becomes a better person.  Humiliation can be damaging to a child, especially if this humiliation is put on the Internet (what is put on the Internet stays on the Internet forever).  No person should have to be repeatedly humiliated after they have initially been punished.  Note to Parents: Discipline your child when needed but the rest of the world does not need a front row viewing of it.