Discipline

“Discipline your child, for in that there is hope.

Do not be a willing party to his death.”

-Proverbs 19:18

I went to a bookstore once and read everything they had there about strong-willed children and discipline. That was about the point over a year ago when I realized Eric, our second, was going to be different than Ellie, our first. If I spoke with a mildly negative tone of voice to Ellie, she burst into tears. A time-out was the end of the world: she sat there sobbing and was so relieved when I came to get her afterwards she easily said sorry and tried to understand why we had put her there.

Pretty much, nothing really straightforward works for Eric. When we try to correct him for crossing a line—he doesn’t do it often, but it could be hitting someone, refusing to hold hands when crossing the street—he gets into a rage. Sometimes his rages are triggered by the smallest things, like my having to interrupt something to go pee, or my asking him if I can change a stinky diaper about to ooze poop out onto his clothing. When he’s in a rage, nothing textbook works. He could care less about whatever I say. Time-outs are me holding him down physically while he kicks and hits me. After a spanking he gets more enraged and continues the bad behavior. We’ve finally come to shutting him in a room, which means I have to stand there holding the door shut while he rages inside. It does bother him he can’t get out, and eventually he will back down a bit, but there’s no saying whether it will take ten minutes or an hour, or whether he will ever say he’s sorry or verbalize any understanding of what I’m trying to teach him.

At the end of it all, I feel pretty battered. These episodes seem to always occur at the worst times; right when I have to leave for work, or when out-of-town friends are visiting. It’s so terribly, dangerously easy to get downright mad at him, or at least view it as a great inconvenience and terrible nuisance.

The ESV version of the above verse caught my eye: “Discipline your son, for there is hope; do not set your heart on putting him to death.” In a topical study I’m doing on parenting, I had just read Deuteronomy 21:18-21, which starts off like it has a great solution for the child who cannot be disciplined, but then ends in saying, take him out to be stoned. The Proverbs verse itself is confusingly translated: the first part is translated “for there is hope,” “while there is hope, “for in that there is hope”; the second part “or you will ruin their lives,” “let not thy soul spare for his crying,” “do not be a willing party to their death.”

The original Hebrew says “yacar” (chasten, correct, admonish, instruct, teach) your son “yesh” (there is, are, being, existence) hope, and “nephesh” (soul, self, desire, emotion, passion) “nasa” (bear, carry, take) “mewth” (to die, kill, send for execution, ‘to die prematurely by neglect of wise moral conduct’).

I take that as meaning: Correct, train, instruct your child, immediately, before too much time passes. Take heart: there is hope. Don’t be swayed by emotions or passions (either yours or theirs); remember this is a matter of life and death.

Lately I’ve been trying to collect mental tapes I can play in my head to help in difficult moments (eg “a gentle answer turns away wrath”). I think I’ll add this one: “discipline your child; there is hope; don’t bear him to death because of your emotions.” I’m asking God to how me how he has disciplined me in my life, and how that has been a sign of his delight in me. I like that image of discipline as a gift: as a meal I serve cheerfully at the table of my kids’ lives (I read that once; it sounded so ridiculous it stuck in my mind), not something I do because I’m dumping my issues on them or bearing them a grudge. I’m trying to remember, this is important, more important than anything else I have going on. It is not an interruption or an inconvenience; it is the main thing.

I’m reading through a book by Farrel called “The 10 Best Decisions Every Parent Can Make” that says, “the more strong-willed the child is, the more creative and layered your discipline will need to be” (eg word pictures, stories, separation, humor). So a practical thing I’m trying is to stay consistent about crossing lines, but otherwise being flexible—maybe diffuse a situation early on with humor, use stories to teach things (Deut 6:4-7) when he’s not in a rage, call out positive behavior. We’ll see how it goes.