Article October 7, 1972 Issue

How Can You Control Your Children?

HELEN M. LEADBEATER

What do you do when your toddler deliberately dumps his cereal on the floor? Or when your six-year-old does exactly what you just told her not to do?

A small child can be controlled by strictness, by rewards for good behavior and punishments and spankings for bad. But what foundation is being laid for direction of the child when he grows too big to threaten and spank? How will he be controlled when he grows into his teens?

Training and discipline of children has apparently always been a challenge. Early Biblical writings refer to situations that create friction between children and their parents. The writer of Proverbs makes frequent reference to this. "A foolish son is the calamity of his father," Prov. 19:13; he says, and, "A child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame." 29:15; Paul speaks of the sin of disobedience to parents (see Rom. 1:30).

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