Distraction as discipline
When a small child wants to hold a harmful object or do something dangerous, many people recommend distraction. They says that when a child wants to do something forbidden, all the parent needs to do is to give them something else to do, or give them something else to play with.
We do use distraction with our infant son. He drops objects frequently enough that he hardly notices when we hand him a toy instead of the electric cord he wanted to chew on. He doesn’t care what he plays with.
Like some medications, distraction provides fast, temporary relief, but doesn’t cure the problem. The argument for distraction says that spanking is works only because the parent is bigger. But distraction works only because the parent is smarter.
How long can the parent keep it up? I’m not talking about how long the parent can be smarter than the child, though it hear it’s much shorter than we wish. I mean how long and how far are parents willing to distract not only the child from the behavior, but also how long are they willing to distract the child from the main issue.
When do parents plan to stop distracting and start to teach delayed gratification, or self- denial? One blogger says he wants to get away from teaching self-denial. Unfortunately this would require moving to a different planet.
Is present peace more important than future contentment? When is a child ready to learn that they’re not always the same thing?
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