Counterpoint: The More You Discipline a Child the Less Discipline They Develop
Discipline is not as cut and dry as it may appear. Obviously it’s important to have discipline. However, it’s also important to have a choice not to be disciplined. This nuance is what causes many well meaning parents to stumble.
Having discipline is a choice. A choice to do what’s good for you over what feels good to you. Parents must understand that if they want their child to have discipline as an adult, they must get practice making choices to have discipline early on in life. Sometimes they will choose discipline and sometimes they won’t. Either way, the experience of making the choice is how they learn that discipline is important.
When a parent controls their child’s choices, they remove the child’s feeling of responsibility for their choices. This is ultimately what leads to a lack of discipline. Yes, parents must have standards, rules and consequences in place. However, the more they use these standards, rules and consequences to control instead of using them as guardrails, the less discipline a child will develop.