The importance of discipline in a child’s life

Many people tend to think of discipline only in terms of punishment and certainly punishment is frequently involved as a part of discipline. However, discipline can often refer simply to a way of training someone so that they learn to obey the rules and learn to distinguish right from wrong.

Discipline, in this sense of training, should play an important part in a child’s life from a very early stage. If they are to grow up to play a useful role in society, they have to be taught to obey its rules.

Children initially need this training in order to keep themselves from harm. For example, they have to learn not to touch something very hot for fear of burning themselves or touch something sharp for fear of cutting themselves.

Socialization is another important part of a child’s development and this is closely connected with discipline. Children need to be taught how to be with other people in public, as well as in the home, without upsetting, offending or annoying anyone. We have all been in a restaurant where a child has been behaving badly and so spoiling the pleasure of others. Parents must take steps to avoid such things happening.

Parents often find imposing discipline extremely difficult, but, for the sake of the child in later life, it is worth spending time and effort on it in the early years. How do parents achieve discipline? Smacking as a method of imposing discipline used to be common. This was thought to encourage violence in children and it is now actively discouraged. In some countries it has been declared illegal.

There are various other ways of imposing discipline on young children without having to resort to physical punishment. Children often respond well just to a change in a parent’s tone of voice or a few firm words. Alternatively, parents can make the children spend a short time on their own, perhaps in their room, or deprive them of a promised treat. Finally, parents can do much to enforce discipline in their children by setting a good example with their own behaviour.

After children go to school discipline continues to be an important issue in their lives. The punishment element of discipline increases and the threat of punishment, such as detention or extra homework, hopefully acts as a deterrent for someone planning to break the rules. Obeying the rules is even more crucial in a school than it is in the home because, at school, one child’s misbehaviour can affect a great many people.

If children receive adequate and appropriate discipline both in the home and at school they should grow up into law-abiding members of society. They will then avoid unpleasant adult versions of discipline, such as being fined by courts or put in prison. The discipline imposed on them in their early lives will, thus, have helped them to lead better lives, surely an indication of the importance of discipline in a child’s life.