Explanation Essay
Kyler Patillo
Mrs. Lindholm
Comp. I
2 December 2014
Good Discipline or Child Abuse
When looking back on my childhood I can recall many times where I gave my mother reason to discipline me. Sometimes this discipline consisted of a “spanking” with a belt. At the time, I didn’t really understand the reason for acts like that, and I did hate them. However today I understand that the respect I have for authority and my family came from those moments of discipline. My mother was teaching me that when you act against what is okay there are consequences. When I was little this type of thing was acceptable, however, as the years go by people are less and less considering it constructive discipline and are more and more considering it child abuse.
When I was 13 I moved out of my mother’s home and came to Minnesota to live with my sister. Since I have been here, even at an older age, there have been times when the same constructive discipline my mother used was required to reprimand me. At this point in time I no longer require any discipline of any kind because the concept of consequences for wrong actions has been drilled into my head since I was very young.
While my discipline took place in the home, my sister has had several moments when she has needed to discipline her daughter in a public place. For example, once in Target my niece was throwing a fit because she couldn’t have a toy and repeatedly grabbed random objects of the shelves and threw them on the ground. She proceeded to act this way, even after several verbal
warnings from my sister for her to cease that kind of behavior. With nothing else working, my sister resorted to spanking her daughter lightly, just hard enough for her to notice it but not hard enough to cause any pain. Another customer in the store witnessed the discipline and was immediately appalled that my sister had spanked her own daughter. The other customer then proceeded to report my sister for child abuse to the
Mrs. Lindholm
Comp. I
2 December 2014
Good Discipline or Child Abuse
When looking back on my childhood I can recall many times where I gave my mother reason to discipline me. Sometimes this discipline consisted of a “spanking” with a belt. At the time, I didn’t really understand the reason for acts like that, and I did hate them. However today I understand that the respect I have for authority and my family came from those moments of discipline. My mother was teaching me that when you act against what is okay there are consequences. When I was little this type of thing was acceptable, however, as the years go by people are less and less considering it constructive discipline and are more and more considering it child abuse.
When I was 13 I moved out of my mother’s home and came to Minnesota to live with my sister. Since I have been here, even at an older age, there have been times when the same constructive discipline my mother used was required to reprimand me. At this point in time I no longer require any discipline of any kind because the concept of consequences for wrong actions has been drilled into my head since I was very young.
While my discipline took place in the home, my sister has had several moments when she has needed to discipline her daughter in a public place. For example, once in Target my niece was throwing a fit because she couldn’t have a toy and repeatedly grabbed random objects of the shelves and threw them on the ground. She proceeded to act this way, even after several verbal
warnings from my sister for her to cease that kind of behavior. With nothing else working, my sister resorted to spanking her daughter lightly, just hard enough for her to notice it but not hard enough to cause any pain. Another customer in the store witnessed the discipline and was immediately appalled that my sister had spanked her own daughter. The other customer then proceeded to report my sister for child abuse to the