I agree that if you can discipline your children without a spanking more power to ya. That is the ideal situation. It's unusual to have a couple of boys close to the same age and not have to use corporal punishment on them. I have a 10 yr old girl, 6 yr old boy and a 5 yr odl boy. My daughter is very low maintenance. Tell her what to do and she does it, if she gives ya lip, just say it a lil more stern and there's no prob. Straight A's in school, a sweetheart.
My two boys, well, they really enjoy fighting. And I mean fighting, my 5 yr old actually balls up a fist and jabs with the hand guarding his face. lol. Don't know where he got that but I'm doing my best to get him and his bro to get along. I had a bro 1.5 yrs younger than me when I was growing up. We used to beat the heck out of each other on a regular basis. Fistfights, stitches etc. We didn't really hate each other, we stuck up for each other at school, just couldn't get along together. My mom tried that grounding crap (pop wasn't around much) She'd ground me for like 2 months at a time. It didn't work well. Just built up anger inside. I was very disrespectful to my mom.
I don't want my boys going through that crap. That's why I'm trying to curb this bad behavior mess while they're still young. If they fight, they usually get a swat to the butt and a good talking to. For just about everything else words work. I think it's all in how you say the words that makes it work. My wife is horrible at keeping my boys straight. If they misbehave in the Supermarket, she'll say something like. "Now, you boys better straighten out....ok?" which I think is retarded. I mean shes asking them if its ok if they behave for crying out loud. Such is the case with too many young parents who think they're being all noble by not "touching" their children. In many cases, the kids are just brats gone wild. To make "not touching" your kids work (or young boys in my case) you gotta lay it down to them clearly. You don't ask them squat. You let them know that they're misbehaving and it's not going to be tolerated. Men in most cases (IMO) are better at this. Granted some boys can be raised up in a single parent home (mom) and be raised in a heathly atmosphere. The moms who do this are usually pretty mature, not your young 20's.
Anyways, there's my blathering. And I'm sticking to it!
