Woman Stirs Debate After Revealing That She Spanked Her 4-Year-Old Brother To Discipline Him
He ran off to the street.
Maria Symchych/Shutterstock Disciplining kids has always been a matter of debate among people. While some people may think that something is alright, other people might not.
Spanking can come on that list as many people still wonder whether it can be considered a form of discipline for the kid.
Similarly, this 20-year-old girl went to Reddit to share her experience of spanking her 4-year-old brother as a way to discipline him.
The girl started her post by mentioning that she has a 3-year-old sister and a 4-year-old brother. She was taking care of her siblings for a day.
She further wrote in one instance, she was walking them to the car while holding their hands. However, her brother let go of her hand and ran towards the street.
The girl spanked her 4-year-old brother but wonders if she went too far.
Upon seeing that he ran off, the girl yelled at him to stop. However, the kid didn’t listen to her and continued to run.
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The girl tried to catch up with him with her 3-year-old sister by her side. Eventually, she got a hold of him and mentioned that he didn’t get the chance to run into the street.
Seeing this situation unfold, the girl was angry that her brother didn’t listen to her.
She wrote, “When I grabbed his little hand I buckled my little sister in and put my [4-year-old] brother over my knee and gave him a spanking.”
The girl mentioned that her brother cried for the rest of the car ride. However, the girl kept explaining to him how dangerous it was to randomly run off to the street.
She further wrote, “When they are in my care for a day or two I discipline how I see fit.”
She also mentioned that her parents had given her the freedom to discipline the kids in the way she wanted. So, she didn’t feel like she did anything wrong.
Internet users mostly criticized the girl and told her that she was wrong.
Many parents also commented saying that physical punishment isn’t the best idea for a 4-year-old. They mentioned since the kid is quite young, his actions were done unknowingly.
He’s too young to understand what he did wrong and physical punishment wouldn’t teach him anything.
One user commented, “Spanking children as punishment can work momentarily to stop problematic behavior, but doesn't work long-term and makes children more aggressive. Spanking is usually more of an outlet for the parents' anger and frustrations.”
Another user wrote, “Adults feel like they are teaching kids an important lesson with a spanking but that’s not how it works as their brains are not sufficiently developed to understand.”
Many people also wrote how spanking a kid could have negative effects on him in the long term.
“Studies have shown that some children who are spanked end up developing trust issues down the line, because the person who spanked them is also usually the one to give them their necessities (love, food, shelter, etc.),” One user commented.
“Not only that, but it teaches them that violence is an acceptable outlet for anger and other intense emotions.”
There were also many suggestions on what the girl could have done instead of spanking her brother.
“A good [strategy] when kids that small do something dangerous is to make them see you scared. Run to them, hug them, ask [them] if they are ok, look them up and down, make a show of it," one person commented.
"Tell them how scared you were because they did something so dangerous and they could have gotten hurt.”
Sanika Nalgirkar, M.F.A. is a writer who covers entertainment & news, lifestyle, and pop culture topics.