SINGAPORE: A local Reddit user asked how Singapore parents discipline their children after an older colleague claimed that “the current teenage generation is too soft because they aren’t well disciplined by their parents.”
The colleague added that back in his day, a caning or harsh scolding would happen when children committed wrongdoings, and due to this, his generation learned how to be disciplined.
However, with today’s youth, “esp with social media and protection of children and all” caning and other forms of discipline are frowned upon, which has resulted in “how rude and ridiculous some children these days are; esp to their parents and elders” for whom they show no respect.
“My friend has a colleague whose child was 7 year old was caught stealing in primary school on four different occasions but all she did was tell him ‘don’t do again next time ah’
Needless to say it happened the 5th time,” the post author added, before asking, “So I’m curious, for parents of the current generation, how do you guys discipline your kids? The old traditional route that our parents did or the ‘let’s just talk some sense into them till they learn?”
One commenter wrote that she had been caned to the point of bloody welts when she was a child, but she refuses to do this with her own son.
“My kids know when to fear and listen to me, but i usually just talk it out with them rather than going all fierce mode unless they still disobey and not listen,” another wrote.
A Reddit user offered this insight: “Idk about others, growing up it’s not the spanking or the scolding that I hated…It’s the lack of respect or communication from my parents that I really despised. I mean things like when they yelled at me in public (kids can feel embarrassed too), or when they just decided to scold / hit me because they unilaterally decided I was wrong and they were right without giving adequate explanations to me.”
Another wrote, “Caning just teaches them that you don’t need reason when you have physical power. They may fear you, but they won’t respect you.”
“As someone who got beat up by my mom regularly as a kid I was in and out of counselling for the entirety of school. I was extremely violent because that’s how I was raised and I learnt how to manipulate people because I had to manipulate my mom in order to get her to stop beating me,” a Reddit user chimed in. /TISG