INDEXING TITLE: JPINGUL’S Medical Anecdotal Report [5-01] 

TITLE: When to Discipline a Child 

PERIOD OF MEDICAL OBSERVATION: February 4, 2006 

NARRATION: 

It was a great Saturday afternoon, the weather was cool, I was duty at the ER, and with the dull moments when no patient was coming in, I started to day dream of the activities I would rather be doing if I was not on duty and spending the time with my family.  It was interrupted when a mother with her 2-year-old son came in to the ER with a complaint of being assaulted by the father. 

I asked them what happened, and the mother narrated to me that they were about to have lunch together, and were waiting for the food that they ordered.  While waiting, the child happened to got hold of the menu of the restaurant and started pointing at the pictures that was printed inside.  The father saw this and found it improper, hence he slapped the child’s cheek, which reddened with the impact. 

At that point, the mother reacted in protest of such action, the couple had a heated exchange of words, lost their appetite, cancelled the ordered food and rushed to the nearest police station to file the complaint. 

While I accomplished the boy’s ER record, I thought to myself, being a father, of a 2-year-old boy made me react myself, the child was very well behaved inside the arms of his mother.  There were occasions that he would gesture to be freed, and he simply walked around.  Then I remembered my son, in such a wide open space like the ER, he would RUN, until we could not catch up with him.  Then I thought, that the child was not even close to being misbehaved as my son. 

INSIGHTS: (discovery, stimulus, REINFORCEMENT), (physical, PSYCHOSOCIAL, ethical) 

As a beginner in raising children, I am still in the learning phase, and many times I don’t know how to react to the seemingly spontaneous outbursts of my son.  So as to equip myself I read on topics that concern disciplining children.  Here are some of the guides I have learned. 

RESPECT the child as a person.  He is human, he has feelings and these can be hurt.  He was given to me by God, so that I may share as co-steward in raising-up my son into the person He intended to be. 

COMMUNICATE with him, so that it is clear what is wrong and what is right.  Make sure that he is aware of the limitations, make him realize this and give him time to retract from his actions.  But there are times that he will persist? Then that it the time discipline is given. 

NEVER discipline a child while in the heat of anger, take time to think, count to ten, then recollect if the punishment will be of benefit for him.  Punishment is a product of anger, while discipline is a product of love. 

LEAD by example.  It is possible that his actions or naughtiness are reflections of the activities of the adult.  This is the best way of teaching, and creates a lot of impact. 

Is it appropriate to punish a child at all?  Perhaps using the “rod” may vary from child to child, there will be children who would take it negatively, while others constructively.  Some children may be mature enough to correct themselves at the time of instruction.  But as for my son, after a lot of verbal instruction and commands, I think the “rod” will benefit him.  I would rather discipline him today and straighten his path, rather than let him live an undisciplined path, and let others (his teachers, the police, and the court) discipline him in the future.