I was appaled by Prudie's response to man saying he feels like a "lout" after hitting his biting nephew. He should feel bad! He's the adult in the situation and should have never acted with violence towards a three year old.

and NO PRUDENCE....it won't "teach him a lesson", it will teach him to be scared and resenful of his uncle and possibly other adults.

I can understand, beingf a mom myself, that getting bit by a child can be infuriating...but to hit a child so hard they fall backward is absolutely disguisting.

Prudence....your advice sucked.

...so it still hurt but there was less risk of serious damage? The way I see it, the kid's obviously not scared ENOUGH of his superiors.

Perfect example of a mom whose kids will wind up in jail.

Nope. Kid's don't respond to reason. Immediate and painful consequences are sometimes the only way to teach a much-needed lesson on how behavior relates to the concept of cause-and-effect.

My father spanked my brother and I, and I have not one drop of hate in my soul for that man. Love him dearly.

People let kids get away with anything and everything, which is why there is an increasing rate of crime. Parents need to discipline their children if society is ever going to recover. Imagine a world where children behaved, no screaming at grocery stores, throwing food at restaurants, no biting uncles for fun. They would then turn into functional adults. Children that have no consequences grow into adult that do not comprehend consequence.

You and I are in the minority. I could see biting the kid's finger - not so hard as to cause actual harm. I could see yelling at the child, or asking the kid's parents to deal with him, or slapping his hand, or leaving.

I mentioned elsewhere that my older, then-teenaged brother once knocked me across the room because he was angry. I still have scars to show for it. HE is the one who has been in jail and has been divorced twice, for not managing his anger nor his other impulses later in his life.

I am not saying that children should not be disciplined. However, knocking your 3 year old across the room is not discipline, it's wrong, hurtful and teaches the child nothing. He could have been disciplined a multitude of other ( more constructive) ways.

ilovepink:

Children that have no consequences grow into adult that do not comprehend consequence.

Maybe even into adults who don't understand that there are consequences for hitting someone else's child.

IncogNeato:

ilovepink:

Children that have no consequences grow into adult that do not comprehend consequence.

Maybe even into adults who don't understand that there are consequences for hitting someone else's child.

I'm not condoning hitting other peoples children, but understand the action was a reflex. Perhaps if the parents spanked the boy the first time it happened it would have put a stop to the behavior.

You are forgetting that this person did NOT intentionally hit the child. It was a quick, instinctive, natural reaction to pain. Have you ever been burned by an iron or a stove? Your body jerks away without you even thinking about it. That's exactly what happened in this situation. An arm was bitten causing pain and the natural reaction was to get whatever was causing the pain the heck off! It was not intentional and this person feels bad about it. Why are all of overlooking that?

If the only way you can think of to respond to a three year old is to throw them across the room....you deserve to be in jail and your kids are probably already there.

How stupid do you really think kids are? Don't you think as the adult you could come up with a more effective means of discipline than hitting back?

My daughter who is now 14 use to bite her brother when she was really little. She would leave bruises all over him, and it was awful! No matter how much we tried to get her to stop she wouldn't! One day she had ahold of him with her teeth on his back and my reaction was to slap to get her off. I'm sure it stung when I did, but just hard enough to scare her into NEVER doing that again. What else can you do when NOTHING works? Some kids really have a problem with this and no reasoning or yelling at them, putting them in a time out or ANYTHING will work..So what can do to protect the victims of the biting? The person who wrote in about this should be reasured that he did the right thing! It is a normal reaction, and the parents who allow this child to continue this problem are not helping! They need to stop that monster before he grows up to think he can do anything he wants to.

I posted elsewhere a similar situation I had AS A CHILD. Yes, it's instinctive to pull away. NO, it not "instinctive" to knock a kid down. Perhaps to start to react, but at some point your brain must take over and remind you that this is a tiny child and YOU are a great, big adult. His "instinctive" reaction could have done actual damage to the child.

Apologize, and think next time. Stay away till the kid is past biting, if necessary. But don't hit a little kid. People lose control sometimes. But they need to acknowledge when what they did was wrong, regardless of the provocation.

As to those who think the kid's father was evil for admonishing the adult in front of the kid and for not disciplining the child, we know none of this to be true. The kid "ran to his room." He was probably dealt with in there (though he should have been made to come out and apologize for biting), and the uncle was probably spoken to by the kid's father while the kid was still there.

I guess so, i never realized so many parents were okay with seeing someone hit there kid and watching them fly across the room. You would think people would realize that violence towards kids doesn't teach them to not be violent themselves.

I'm not saying kids don't need immediate discipline, but to tell a child not to hit or bite and then hit them just makes no sense.