Withholding TV and Video Games is a Good Alternative to Spanking

A lot of people say that parents need to go back to spanking their kids, because kids are so out of control these days and need discipline. Parents complain that they should be allowed to spank their kids; teenagers complain that kids are acting like spoiled brats and need a good smacking to make them behave. Well I won't argue with the fact that we need more discipline. But we don't need spanking, and we shouldn't. Spanking can result in lasting emotional and psychological trauma, and plenty of kids have turned out fine without it. We shouldn't have to use corporal punishment, not when we have something much more effective. Something our parents didn't have when they were kids.

We have TV, we have video games, we have computers, and we have phones. Parents have the means to control these things and use them as tools of discipline.

To put it simply, you take it away when the kid misbehaves, and offer extra privileges as a reward to motivate kids to behave. Take the PS3 away when Johnny throws a tantrum in CVS. Tell Suzie if she's a good girl, she can stay up half an hour later to watch a special episode of her favorite show on Wednesday night.

One thing you can use is the V-chip, or other forms of TV parental control. Now, this is normally used to block kids from watching bad stuff, but you can just as easily set the V-chip to block Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. Say your little girl loves Hannah Montanna. Wouldn't it suck for her if you set your parental controls to block that show for three weeks? That would sting a lot more than being whacked on the butt.

You could also set Playstation parental controls to require a password for certain ratings. It would be really simple to set it so your kid could only play Early Childhood games.

There's also software that allows parents to see what their kids are doing online, as well as block certain websites. You could just say "no internet for a week," and use the software to make sure the kid isn't going online when he or she isn't supposed to, or you could block their favorite websites as a punishment.

I see these types of punishments are more effective, and they're also effective deterrents. I mean, if you tell your kid what's in store if they don't behave, the kid will probably choose to behave in order to keep their precious video game privileges.