Does Too Much Harsh Disciplining Cause Suffering?

Parenting is difficult; some are torn between harsh discipline and gentle parenting. For those who don't think twice about spanking their kids to discipline them, this might help you understand why you should not always resort to that strategy to make your children follow your orders.

Does Too Much Harsh Disciplining Cause Suffering?

A study states harsh discipline includes spanking or beating kids with objects like sticks or belts. It intentionally uses physical or psychological force to cause physical or emotional pain to correct or control a child's behavior.

NCBI added that harsh discipline includes humiliation like verbal abuse, shouting, and name-calling, making it difficult for a child to respect and trust the parent.

Prior studies, largely from Western nations, have shown that maltreatment of children, in addition to physical harm, is linked to several emotional and behavioral issues that start in childhood but may persist into adolescence and adulthood. Depression, anxiety problems, substance misuse, and violent or delinquent conduct are some negative consequences of child abuse. Physical abuse also played a substantial role in lifetime diagnoses of major depression, conduct disorder, and drug dependence.

Psychological or emotional maltreatment is a powerful form related to aggression, developmental issues, attachment disorders, and subsequent psychopathology. For instance, parental verbal aggression was linked to depression, anxiety, and anger-hostility, whereas emotional abuse was linked to later symptoms of anxiety and despair.

Spanking, corporal punishment, and other violent forms of child discipline can hurt kids for a long time. It is also physical abuse to do so, per Tired Mom Supermom.

Children should not be physically or verbally abused for making mistakes. When a parent screams and physically punishes their child, the child suffers from this emotional trauma for a very long time, which might impede their growth.

Harsh punishment does not take place in a vacuum. We must also consider what occurs when grownups do not impose strict discipline.

Children constantly reminded of their errors grow up feeling self-conscious about their flaws. Because they worry about continuing to make mistakes and receiving negative attention, they stop trying new things.

Furthermore, undisciplined kids frequently develop incorrect self-images as adults, which breeds narcissism and a need for validation from others, among other undesirable habits.

What is Effective Discipline?

Beating your child and causing them physical harm is not an effective form of punishment. To discipline a child, you must set limits for inappropriate behavior and lead by example. Correcting inappropriate behavior and assisting kids in learning from their errors are discipline goals.

It's important to help kids learn from their mistakes and prevent them from making the same ones repeatedly as part of effective discipline.

You are depriving your child the chance to learn from their mistakes when you are indulgent with them and do not enforce any consequences. Additionally, you are preventing them from changing their negative behavior and improving themselves.

Discipline aims to teach your child that some behaviors are inappropriate and should not be tolerated, not to humiliate them.

Your child should not be shamed through discipline; instead, it should be used to teach them that certain behaviors are improper and shouldn't be tolerated. Punishment should be given to teach your child that their behavior is unacceptable.

The purpose of applying discipline shouldn't be to humiliate your child. By disciplining your child, you are assisting them in realizing that their actions have repercussions. Your child will learn through discipline that their actions have consequences.

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