General Discussion

Time-outs, lost privileges, and other recommended punishments do not work well for some children. Reward based behavior shaping is difficult when they are too young to really respond to delayed gratification.

My nephew is one such child. He has an incredible imagination, and is perfectly capable of entertaining himself with it alone when he has to. This limits the effectiveness of many punishments.

Years ago when I watched him, I was cautioned by my sister that he was in a phase where he would deliberately act up when he was told he had to wait for something. In particular he would run off, grab things, and try to flush them down the toilet. Spanking was their last resort for such major problems. They had recently stopped this behavior at home with a few spankings but she wouldn't be surprised if he tried it with me.

She was right. When making his lunch he wanted it now. When told it wasn't done cooking, he ran upstairs. He grabbed the mouse from my computer, tossed it in the toilet, and flushed.(too big to go down but the water did ruin it)

I followed my sister's instructions. I picked him up and gave him a single stinging slap to his bottom. I told him that his mommy told me he knows better, and that this is the punishment for trying to flush things down the toilet. He didn't try that again the remainder of the weekend he was with me.

One thing I will say, is spanking should not leave a bruise or injury. That is beating and completely unacceptable.