Perhaps most of us would receive the advice €Spare the rod, spoil your child€ at least once during our parenthood. When a child does something wrong, do we really have to enforce using physical punishment? Gone were the days where children were taught using the cane. Let me tell you why.
During the earlier days, our parents or grandparents may have been less educated. Perhaps the inability to communicate their thought well through words made them show their discontent with child-beating. Wanting what is best for their child, they would make them follow their strict orders, with no talking back, no arguments etc. However, that restricted their child's growth.
A Child's mind needs room to explore, to seek out, to make mistakes and learn from them. Isn't learning from mistakes a good way to understand what works and what doesn't? If the child is afraid of the cane, then being afraid to makes mistakes might restrict their development in the future. As parents, we have to encourage our child's creativity through openness. Showing them what is right and wrong by fully explaining the consequences that might come to follow.
My son used to wet the bed despite reminders to go to the toilet before going to bed. Once I get him to take responsibility and clean up his own mess. From then on he has learnt his lesson. When you tell someone, they might forget. If you show him how, he will learn. But if you involve him, he gets committed.
Other methods like positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement works great too, as long as you are able to explain how the before and after is linked, and that the outcome is always consistent. That means positive actions lead to positive outcomes a 100 percent of the time, and negative actions lead to negative outcomes surely. Teaching your child that will make him understand he should always perform a positive action if he is looking positive outcome.
Being a role model for your child is also very important, children often mimics what adults do. Therefore, never do what you don't what your child to do.
Your child is precious to you. Instead of using physical punishment to control them by fear, parents should take up the responsibility to develop their character into a small person that does things after determining right from wrong. Explain to them when using negative reinforcements and positive reinforcements so that they are able to understand for themselves why some actions are necessary.