Toddler Rules Are Now In Force

You may not think spanking is wrong, but if you believe you have a right to spank your child hard and find a good excuse to do it, thats abuse. Spanking has extremely negative lasting effects (see box in following page) Not only does it create many problems, but it has no documented positive effects. It may scare your child into stopping the unwanted behavior - at least while he's in your presence. But it does not create learning. Here's why. When you try to force good behavior by spanking, you stop the growth of the good-judgment part of a child's brain, the prefrontal cortex. Because spanking creates fear, your child responds from the most primal part of his brain, the flight or fight part. He's just trying to avoid pain, rather than beginning to think through  where his action might lead and understand the impact on another person. These understandings don't fully form till early adulthood, but you want to be building the pathways for them as early as possible. Spanking doesn't support a child's overall healthy emotional and mental development. If you hit your child, you cannot shape his behavior without breaking his spirit.

Toddler Rules #1