In article , mwlogs
wrote:

OK, slapping the crap out of him may not be a PC thing to do these days, but
if you wait until he's older to discipline him when he does something he
shouldn't.... good luck!

This is off-topic, and as much as I appreciate the help with the wall,
I have to respectfully disagree. As someone who was raised with that
kind of discipline, I can assure you that it does not work. I still got
into trouble even though I was physically disciplined, and I just ended
up resenting my parents. Lose-lose situation. It creates an atmosphere
of fear not respect which is the key to making a child *want* to
behave. Which is more effective? A child who behaves because he
respects you and wants to live up to your expectations, or a child who
behaves because he's fearful and doesn't want to be spanked? The former
will behave when you're not around, the latter won't.

My wife and I have had extraordinarily good results with taking away
privileges from our older child (i.e., no TV, no video games, no park,
no friends overs, etc.) and there's no intimidation going on with that
approach. For the 2-year-old, simple but stern explanations appear to
go a long way. We've managed to put an end to him hitting his older
sister as well as biting and scratching. The ding in the wall was the
accidental result of him running through the house with a toy in his
hand. There's little sense in disciplining in that case.

There's a whole branch of the government that
deals with people that weren't properly taught right from wrong at an early
age - it's called the Department of Correction in most states!

You'll find that, statistically, children raised with inattentive
parents (and so, by extension, the single-parent households that
conservatives love to focus on so intently) are the ones who end up in
that system most often. By that fact alone, any parent who disciplines,
physically or otherwise, is doing the right thing. However, I think
some forms of discipline can yield bad side-effects while not being
particularly effective.

One other thing (and this will bring things back around to being
on-topic somewhat) I've also found that expecting a child to correct
their own mistakes can be very effective too. If it were my 8-year-old
who had dinged the wall, I would expect her to help with the repair.
Not only does that represent a form of discipline (what kid wants to
sit there doing that kind of thing when the neighbor kids are outside
playing?) but it's a great learning experience to boot. As a result of
that, I can stop my daughter from misbehaving most of the time by
asking her, "What's wrong with what you're doing right now?" She'll
come back with an explanation and will stop immediately.

Wow... didn't mean to carry on like this, but it's a topic that really
gets me going. There are lots of ways to handle discipline that don't
involve hitting.