It's odd you bring this up. My younger one used to kick and smack the crap out of me and her older sister (9 years older sister), but she was the first one to say she'd call the police if we responded in kind. Used to bite other kids in pre-school, was a bully in k-garten, constant calls from the school. I straightened her out with some role-playing and empathy exercises and she's SWELL now.
And, my older daughter went into daycare for a job, was appauled by how many kids hit & kicked her, even in the stomach. She knew she wanted to get pregnant soon, so she quit her daycare job so no injury could occur from those jerky kids. Their parents were a lot like you describe and there was little the daycare could do other than kick the kid out!!

My Mother at 5'4" raised four sons in the 6' range...she could open up a can of 'whoop-ass' like nobody I know. Can't remember a time that we didn't deserve it...none of us ended up drug addicts, rapists or murderers...

The problem with our society in general: No consequences...No personal responsibility and too many rights for criminals.

Try being in a room full of children who have been led to believe it's okay to hit whoever they want.

And do you spend 24/7 with this child, probably not.

Do you have any of your own children???????
Probably not!

a lot of the time yes, plus i did nursery nursing for a while. im giving my opinion, dont judge me please. or answer questions about me which you dont know!!

I don't judge u, I just know that ppl who don't have children get defensive cause they have never been in the situation.

have been in child raising for a lot of years and what is happening with our young children nowadays SCARES THE HELL OUT OF ME

As I said before these out of control little ones will one day be deciding what your life will be like.

Kinda scary when you look at it that way

We were spanked, my parents were spanked. Then it was called "taken out behind the woodshed". I think discipline is the problem with kids today, or the lack thereof. I've seen a few I'd like to pull out of a line in the grocery store myself.

During the times we were all raised or raised our children I think most all parents at one time or another spanked their children and we and them are fine as adults it is this new generations that says its abuse to spank and thus being said is whats wrong with society today!!! JMO

i believe spanking is not a resort they are differnt ways too discipline.........i guess i say this since one of my classes i took this semester was callled perent child entereaction adn we used the books parenting from inside out and positive discipline really good books u need help read the books

im not being defensive, from experience this is my opinion, thats all.

I have two kids, boy 27 and a girl 22, they grew up knowing if they did "BAD" they would get there butt swatted (once)and hard, the boy has had it twice and the girl never got it,
If parents would stat young and "teach" I believe spanking would not be a part of growing up as hurting your kids just does'nt seem right to me...

any sort of hitting is ILLEGAL in the uk.

i agree, there are many other ways to discipline children. plus i beleive it CAN get out of hand with SOME people. ive saw this and its heart breaking

I bevlieve its whatever the parents are letting htem watching ...in one of my child development classes we watched the games that kids have a hold of at earlly age..they include so much violence...last day care at school i was at volunteer for class had a kid that always kicked i never yeled or screamed i justgrabbed him by the hand and said look ciome here with me when outside time he sat alone at tabler ofr a bit like 5 mins while he saw rest of kids playing......then ill come back and ill ask him are u ready too play nice with friends now.well it worked out he didnt do it again............well atleast for a month

books are great, have my credentials in child care and in the books it tells you start them young with positive discipline. Problem is parents don't read the books, and children are now programmed to report anything they think is abuse. No one wants to hit their children, at least I didn't.

Time outs they have found can have a bad psychological impact on children as well besause time outs are a kind of segregation and labeling the child as bad, so the other children can see.

I also believe they see WAY too much violence on tv, but have you ever watched the news.

i believe that some children need to be spanked at sometimes..........i only say this because i know the type of child i was.......the same as my father his brother and my grandfather and probaly back even futher...........ground me, threaten me, take something away, time out nothing worked on us........all the males in my family have stories of acting up and getting the wooden spoon, williow sticks, belts, and thing with arm's reach.....my grandmother would carry a wooden spoon to the store with her so she could swat me if i acted out in the store...........sure we all rebelled growing up, but we all grew up and live good lifes now.......i look around at the way kids treat adualts on the public transit and it makes me sick.........when a kid knows he can spit on an adualt and there is nothing anyone can do to him, something is wrong........JMO

I know time outs are bad......we never send children too corner at all actually we have the quiet library when ever they feel bad or sad or need alone time they go over there and lay on sofa hug a bear read a book.......out side we have too once in a long while with that child he hits pulls hair ...really absive..........we tried everything......heck i believe the namce we screamt out the most is his name in class......more thing

Taken from http://allpsych.com/psychology101/reinforcement.html

Chapter 4: Learning Theory and Behavioral Psychology

Section 1: Introduction to Learning Theory and Behavioral Psychology

Section 2: Classical and Operant Conditioning

Section 3: Reinforcement and Reinforcement Schedules


Reinforcement

The term reinforce means to strengthen, and is used in psychology to refer to anything stimulus which strengthens or increases the probability of a specific response. For example, if you want your dog to sit on command, you may give him a treat every time he sits for you. The dog will eventually come to understand that sitting when told to will result in a treat. This treat is reinforcing because he likes it and will result in him sitting when instructed to do so.

This is a simple description of a reinforcer (Skinner, 1938), the treat, which increases the response, sitting. We all apply reinforcers everyday, most of the time without even realizing we are doing it. You may tell your child "good job" after he or she cleans their room; perhaps you tell your partner how good he or she look when they dress up; or maybe you got a raise at work after doing a great job on a project. All of these things increase the probability that the same response will be repeated.

There are four types of reinforcement: positive, negative, punishment, and extinction. We’ll discuss each of these and give examples.

Positive Reinforcement. The examples above describe what is referred to as positive reinforcement. Think of it as adding something in order to increase a response. For example, adding a treat will increase the response of sitting; adding praise will increase the chances of your child cleaning his or her room. The most common types of positive reinforcement or praise and rewards, and most of us have experienced this as both the giver and receiver.

Negative Reinforcement. Think of negative reinforcement as taking something negative away in order to increase a response. Imagine a teenager who is nagged by his mother to take out the garbage week after week. After complaining to his friends about the nagging, he finally one day performs the task and to his amazement, the nagging stops. The elimination of this negative stimulus is reinforcing and will likely increase the chances that he will take out the garbage next week.

Punishment. Punishment refers to adding something aversive in order to decrease a behavior. The most common example of this is disciplining (e.g. spanking) a child for misbehaving. The reason we do this is because the child begins to associate being punished with the negative behavior. The punishment is not liked and therefore to avoid it, he or she will stop behaving in that manner.

Extinction. When you remove something in order to decrease a behavior, this is called extinction. You are taking something away so that a response is decreased.

Research has found positive reinforcement is the most powerful of any of these. Adding a positive to increase a response not only works better, but allows both parties to focus on the positive aspects of the situation. Punishment, when applied immediately following the negative behavior can be effective, but results in extinction when it is not applied consistently. Punishment can also invoke other negative responses such as anger and resentment.

Reinforcement Schedules

Know that we understand the four types of reinforcement, we need to understand how and when these are applied (Ferster & Skinner, 1957). For example, do we apply the positive reinforcement every time a child does something positive? Do we punish a child every time he does something negative? To answer these questions, you need to understand the schedules of reinforcement.

Applying one of the four types of reinforcement every time the behavior occurs (getting a raise after every successful project or getting spanked after every negative behavior) is called a Continuous Schedule. Its continuous because the application occurs after every project, behavior, etc. This is the best approach when using punishment. Inconsistencies in the punishment of children often results in confusion and resentment. A problem with this schedule is that we are not always present when a behavior occurs or may not be able to apply the punishment.

There are two types of continuous schedules:

Fixed Ratio. A fixed ratio schedule refers to applying the reinforcement after a specific number of behaviors. Spanking a child if you have to ask him three times to clean his room is an example. The problem is that the child (or anyone for that matter) will begin to realize that he can get away with two requests before he has to act. Therefore, the behavior does not tend to change until right before the preset number.

Fixed Interval. Applying the reinforcer after a specific amount of time is referred to as a fixed interval schedule. An example might be getting a raise every year and not in between. A major problem with this schedule is that people tend to improve their performance right before the time period expires so as to "look good" when the review comes around.

When reinforcement is applied on an irregular basis, they are called variable schedules.

Variable Ratio. This refers to applying a reinforcer after a variable number of responses. Variable ratio schedules have been found to work best under many circumstances and knowing an example will explain why. Imagine walking into a casino and heading for the slot machines. After the third coin you put in, you get two back. Two more and you get three back. Another five coins and you receive two more back. How difficult is it to stop playing?

Variable Interval. Reinforcing someone after a variable amount of time is the final schedule. If you have a boss who checks your work periodically, you understand the power of this schedule. Because you don’t know when the next ‘check-up’ might come, you have to be working hard at all times in order to be ready.

In this sense, the variable schedules are more powerful and result in more consistent behaviors. This may not be as true for punishment since consistency in the application is so important, but for all other types of reinforcement they tend to result in stronger responses.


********************************
Punishment only temporarily stops the behavior, Reinforcement can correct the behavior or stop it for longer periods to time. Reinforcement has been researched to be more effective than punishment such as spanking. Constant reinforcement of good behavior is what will be most effective.

JMO and many other psychologists!

SO, tell me how to get parents to read and understand.

Hey everone out there, I do not and did not like spanking my children, I JUST KNOW THAT IF WE DON'T DO SOMETHING WITH THE BEHAVIORS OF THESE YOUNG CHILDREN MANY OF THEM WILL GROW UP TO BE THUGS AND CRIMINALS AS NO ONE IS TELLING THEM WHAT THEY ARE DOING IS WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NO ONE IS TELLING THEM BECAUSE THEY MIGHT GET THE POLICE CALLED ON THEM FOR "ABUSING THEIR KIDS" WHY BECAUSE WE HAVE TOLD THEM THEY ARE BEING ABUSED IF THEY DON'T GET THEIR WAY!!!

requiereing them just like day care does here they require too take a child development class the one took.........for child too be in day......realy helps parents here....and ther are flexible hours night and day time classes.........