Spare the rod, spoil the child

[Dystopia]

I've seen a study recently that when given the choice between a shock or having 15 minutes to your own thoughts: more people chose the shock.

Making a kid think and discuss how they fucked up is, apparently, a worse punishment in the eyes of the child than a swat which is immediate resolution. I couldn't wait to get the spanking over with especially if we had to travel home or if I had to wait for dad to come home, to do so. I don't remember the swats themselves although I can count on one hand how many I got. I remember the anguish I was in until it was over with, mainly because it was more important for my parents to not be mad at me anymore. I remember a lot of obsessing about whether or not they were mad at me. Don't even remember why I got swatted.

I was punished by the 15 (and sometimes more) minutes of reflection and a correctional conversation, it was hard and in a certain way made me feel bad about myself and miserable, but in a good way because I later changed my attitudes and improved myself, so I guess that method must work really well. Now, if a child doesn't respect their parents, a conversation will be useless, the child will just pretend to listen and then go back and repeat the offence. Since I started respecting my parents from a very early age, I never had that problem, but then again, parents who don't teach their kids basic respect and family values from the beginning are risking raising a child with lots of behavioral problems. I already gave the example of my aunt, she had 3 babies in a period of 6 years, she always let them do whatever they wanted to do, now they are older (the older one is 10 years old) and they misbehave all the time, she has serious trouble controlling them. Some parents should learn to say no.