Q&A for How to Punish a Child

In many states/jurisdictions, that would be considered neglect. It's incredibly dangerous to lock your child in a room. If they get hurt or require medical attention, you wouldn't know and they wouldn't have any way of coming to get you, for example. Not only that, but this could lead to a collapse in trust between you and your child.

No. Public humiliation may be in the headlines, but it will damage your child's self esteem, body image, and mental health. How do you know she wets the bed on purpose? She could be saying that to cover it up. To avoid her wetting the bed, put in a rule that she is not allowed to drink water 2 hours prior to bed and she must use the restroom before going to sleep. if it persists, take her to the doctor to find out why she keeps wetting the bed. If she's lying to cover something up, that will call her bluff.

You are probably getting punished because something that you are doing is going against what your parents wanted you to do or doing something they told you not to do. If you are getting punished for something, ask: "Did I know about this before I started getting punished?"

Try a different punishment that doesn't involve standing somewhere for a certain amount of time, like take away his devices, and/or cut back privileges like TV time, time with friends, etc.

For breaking a minor rule, you should judge their time out by their age. Your nine year old should have 9 minutes of time out, and should apologize. I wouldn't recommend sending them to their room, as they will have things there to entertain themselves.

Falling for those adorable puppy-dog eyes will only enforce the behavior and keep it happening. Instead, you need to remain firm and tell her she has done wrong and has to face the consequence. Eventually she'll stop because she'll learn that it won't get her anywhere. Letting this continue could lead to more manipulative behaviors later in life.

Your dad may have left for many different reasons, perhaps it was his relationship with your mother or he had things to do elsewhere but the important thing is to not blame yourself for his adult decision to move on.

First hear her out , then you can ground her for a time and tell her to say sorry for her cousin and to make it a sincere apology.

Understand that some children, some earlier than others, will reach a certain age where they become curious about things of a sexual nature and it is not uncommon for children going through this to begin watching porn. First of all install something that will prevent him from accessing any inappropriate sites and explain to him that he is too young to be looking at that stuff and when he becomes an adult it is his choice (as long as it is legal) but for now you cannot allow him to watch it. Tell him how bad the nature of the stuff he is watching is, how it can be abusive or sadistic, which will have a bad effect on him especially since he is only a child.

If you mean calling a child 'useless', this is considered verbal (and emotional) abuse. Comparing a child to other children, whether they be your or not, is also emotional abuse. Every child, even if they are twins or siblings, is different. One might like playing outside and enjoys school, while another may prefer video games and despise school. Instead, talk to your child about what's expected of him/her and what violating those rules results in. You will get better results from explaining the rules rather then comparing, which does not really explain the rules in any way.

Do not punish a child if they are feeling angry or sad. That just makes them feel worthless and they will continue to cry themselves to sleep. Apologize to your daughter and ask her why she is crying. Then, follow appropriate steps to solve it. If she got bullied at school, tell her to stand up for herself and tell the teachers. If she is stressed, you should try to calm her down and, for example, if she has trouble with school, get her a tutor. If she has a mental illness like depression, please take her to a therapist/psychologist.

Take him to the park for a walk, as he can observe nature, like the grass, flowers, and bugs there. You could also let him draw with non-toxic art supplies (in case he eats them). Playing with a bubble gun is also nice, and so is a fun bubble bath.

In this situation, grounding is probably not going to do much beyond making your teen angry. Plus, as you would have no way to enforce the rule of no friends while babysitting, it would be ineffective to stop the behaviour. Instead, the punishment should be not being able to babysit for you. The money that he would lose from not babysitting should teach him a lesson. Instead, put the money that would be used to pay him to being used to pay for an actual babysitter. He has proven he is not mature enough to babysit.

Use safe and mild punishment: something like time-outs, grounding or elimination of various privileges.

Don't let your teen visit that friend for a while. Explain to your teen the dangers and costs of smoking.

It's your choice, but it wouldn't be unwarranted.