General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I was involved in a discussion a few nights ago that shocked and silenced me. [View all]JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)If you reached the point where you think the only choice you have is to hit your kid, you failed. And you should own that.
Hitting your kid will teach them to stop doing what they are doing right now. But it doesn't teach them not to do it in the future. It teaches them to not let you catch them.
You have to figure out what causes your child to act in a certain way in certain situations, and then figure out what to change. This can be tough to do. You have to think about it a lot. You have to think about the events that occurred shortly prior. You have to objectively access your own behavior and look for ways in which you might be helping to cause the behavior in question. You may have to change some of your own behavior as you attempt to change their behavior. And that can take some time.
Or ... you can hit them. And they will stop doing whatever it is they are doing.
For now.
Oh, and when you hit them, know that you failed that day. You did not have the patience or cognitive / emotional ability to figure out another approach. At a minimum, owning it will cause you to hit your child less frequently and maybe work just a little harder at parenting.