Disciplining Your Child in Public

One of parents' worst dilemmas is whether or not they should discipline their child in public. In today's society, bad parenting can result in being investigated for child abuse or neglect and possibly your children being taken away from you. As a parent if you do decide to discipline in public, which in most cases you should, you have to consider your punishments carefully.

The reason you should discipline your child in public is if you do nothing your child is more likely to repeat his or her behavior. Next time, your child may make their actions worse knowing you will do nothing. Children will try their parents to see how much they can do if they are not disciplined in public for something they would get in trouble for at home.

My worst nightmare is my children acting out in the store or other public entity and I have to try to decide whether or not I will punish them and how. With an autistic child there are plenty of times I have to decide whether or not to punish my son. There are some things that he does that he cannot help, even though society would normally punish the child, I will not. I wait for that nosy person who thinks I am doing such a horrible injustice that they call children's services on me for neglect.

For example, just yesterday we went to the zoo on a train ride. The ride with my son was smooth and uneventful. Then, the train stopped. My child did not want to get off the train. Of course, I picked him up and carried him off the train. Then, there was a long crying spell followed by me putting him on the ground. Once he knew that he was not going to get back on the train, he stopped. We are talking several minutes though. This was not an easy decision because there were other adults who were looking at us like we were killing the poor child.

We could have put him back on the train and he would have immediately stopped crying. That would have made it easier for everyone else in the zoo, but rewarding him with what he wanted would have made him cry the next time I told him no.

Regardless of what other people think, it is your responsibility to do what is right for your children. You have to decide whether a few stares are as bad as you rewarding your child for bad behavior and turning your child into a possible delinquent. Once you ignore bad behavior in public that you would normally punish your child for, your child will become confused and start testing the boundaries. Children know they are consistently punished for this behavior at home, but in public it is okay. What else can your child do and get away with? Your child will want to find out.