Mohd, when I was doing investigations of families for child abuse, and doing home studies for the court, for adoptions, for foster homes, for out of state placement, etc., the *very best* answer about discipline I ever heard was a young married lady who told me that when she did wrong her parents had done the following:
First Time: sat her down and explained what and why she should not have done what she did.
Second Time: Repeated the explanation, then restricted her from some activity - she lost something she liked to do for 3 days, a week, something like that.
Third Time: got reminded that her parents had told her twice not to do this before. Then she got a spanking.
But the very best part was that she said they did this "like clockwork", or in other words, ( unless the kid had very extenuating circumstances ) it was applied consistently and the kid knew the consequences up front before he pulled any shenanigans if he only stopped to think about it. Very much the general idea you described using.
I like your attitude about children being a gift and responsibility from the Almighty, especially since one of the favorite verses of my belief's sacred scriptures tells us that: " All who follow His spirit are God's own sons. " I need to remember that I, and all those of good will, are his children... and as children in His eyes, even if we look like adults to each other we should love and display kindness and forgiveness when one of us pulls a jackass stunt. Often for the umpteenth time in my case - I think I'm so smart I'm sure that I can get around the consequences it if I do it just a little differently this time. Sound familiar?
[This message has been edited by Rusty (edited 28 December 1999).]
