Originally Posted by
1love4everÂ

I guess considering how I was raised, I would not care if GD did lead to wild children, I would much rather have my child be wild than to feel the humiliation, hopelessness and fear that comes with the style of parenting that I was raised with.
I agree with this and what Lindaonthemove said. When DS was born I was determined not to smack and resigned to the fact that this meant I would have a wild, crazy child who would run on the road. I literally didn't know that there was any other way to discipline. I was, in fact, thrilled when Supernanny first came out because of this wonderful thing called time out that meant I could have a reasonably behaved child without smacking. (I still think that time out is a very useful resource for parents who were raised with violence, so that they have something else to do when their own programming is telling them to hit.) While googling around for more information on this amazing innovation, I found a result that talked about problems with (punitive) time out. I thought it must be a typo, clicked through and found mdc, where the wise mothers were saying that they used GD, not to get well behaved kids, but because it was right.Â
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I still would rather have my kids be badly behaved than feel like I did at their ages. Interestingly DS is generally very well behaved, and DD is considered a model child at daycare, but they are both very intense and dramatic (each in their own way) in a way that is quite foreign to H and me - both of us very calm, restrained and quiet most of the time. I have wondered where they get it from, but I wonder now whether we would both also have been more like our kids if we hadn't been smacked for being too loud, talking back, contradicting, whining etc.
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On the sleep issue, I have such vivid memories of lying awake for hours in the dark, scared of the monsters. I can't help but agree that better night-time parenting might lead to adults who don't stay up too late to avoid bed, or even routinely send themselves to bed too early, then lie awake feeling stressed.