It is the responsibility of parents to raise their kids to be God fearing people. Parents are supposed to be the ones to that teach their kids boundaries so the kids can grow up to be responsible adults. I know it is hard to believe, but parents do know right from wrong. However, somewhere over the past 40 to 50 years and maybe even longer ago, that all changed. If I had to take a real guess it was somewhere around World War I, but that is just a wild guess.
If you are wondering what changed or what started to change, it was parents relationships with their kids. Parents want to be their kids best friend versus being their parent and that might work when the child is older, but when they are young, that does not work. Not sure where this philosophy came from, but it is hurting our society more than it is helping.
Proverbs 13:24 New International Version (NIV)
24 Whoever spares the rod hates their children,
but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them.
I bring this up because the little girl who painted on the closet wall was disciplined by her mom. Her mom gave her a timeout and the girl cried for about an hour or more. The mom never caved, but once the girl calmed down and they talked, then the mom let her up. While the mom can correct her daughter however she wants, I am not sure a timeout is always the answer. Sometimes a good old fashion spanking is all that is needed. I say this because the girl has already been in trouble for drawing on the walls at her house. If a timeout was going to work, it would have done so by this point in time, but it was obvious the correction techniques being used had not worked.
When I asked her why she did it, she tried to blame others. However, putting the blame on others takes the responsibility away from her and that is wrong. So I asked her if she knew it was wrong and her reply was yes. However, she just wanted to do it and did not really care about the consequences because they were pretty light.
If this had been my child, I may have given her a timeout the first or even second time, but after that I would have spanked her butt or her hands to let her know it was wrong. You can call me whatever you want, but there are times where other discipline techniques besides a timeout is warranted.
Now take the other end of the spectrum where Lavar Ball basically excused his sons behavior when his son was in China and was caught stealing. He said something to the effect of his son gave everything back and he did not get violent with the authorities as that somehow excuses what his son did. So what. What he did was wrong and his son knew it, but his son at the time did not care.
Everyone raises their child differently, but Lavar Ball should have made it known that this type of behavior was not going to be tolerated. Now his son after the fact apologized for his own behavior, but was it genuine or did he say it because others were hold him accountable for his actions. I believe people would have looked at this differently had Laval Ball made a statement more inline with taking disciplinary actions against his son.
If you are a parent with an uncontrollable child or children, then you need to take a good hard look at yourself. It maybe that you have not adequately established boundaries for your kids and they are just running wild. It could also be that you are making excuses for your child(s) behavior. All of this sends mixed information that they do not know how to process and ultimately it just confuses them and in the end they will do something and society will punish them more harshly. This could potentially have been avoided had you been a parent versus a friend. Do not get me wrong, it is not a one size fits all punishment. It will require you to pay attention and be active in their life, but in the end your child or children will be much better off.
As always, you have the choice, but I will pray that you choose wisely. If your child does something that society considers wrong because you have failed to help your child learn the boundaries, then your child will eventually pay the price. This may be imprisonment or even the death penalty. So what do you want to be, your child(s) friend or parent? As for me and my wife, we have chosen to be their parent. Our kids are not perfect, but I feel like then are able to function in society with a health relationship.