I know we belabor the point here, sometimes…

But, whenever I read people replies from people in the neverending spanking/not spanking debate, it seems like there are some who think the only choices for teaching our children are:

Spanking
Timeouts
Taking away toys/priveleges
1-2-3 Magic

That’s it. Just straight pavlovian stimuli/response to train the children what to do and what not to do, until they’re grown.

Just wanted to get a list of other parenting methods that people use, to let people know that there are other choices that involve actually teaching your child to make good decisions without the contrived stimuli/response reward/punishment system.

So, what are some of the other alternatives (besides, I guess, totally ignoring & neglecting your kids or abusing them). What are some parenting methods that you’ve used or seen working in real life, besides the above ones?
Along with using facets of attachment parenting (http://www.attachmentparenting.com/ ), we, for the most part, use the methods described in the book Parenting with Love and Logic (http://www.loveandlogic.com/ ) which helps you guide your children to an understanding of how their choices affect themselves and others, using the natural consequences of their actions to help them really internalize the lesson and be able to apply it to other choices in their lives.

It’s worked pretty well, so far, on our natural kids.

Didn’t work too well on a niece who we fostered through her early teen years, but, as she had Reactive Attachment Disorder, I’m not sure what would have worked on her.
Oh, and we’ll use 1-2-3 magic and timeouts from time to time. Life is hectic & sometimes you just need a quick solution.

When trying to create good habits, we’ll go with a sticker chart.

And, like Biz, we’ve found that sometimes ‘natural consequences’ aren’t obvious enough, so we’ll creatively enhance them a bit if needed

Why is it that the law requires people to take parenting classes before they become a foster parent, but..
When a couple is expecting a biological child, the law doesn’t require them to take any classes.

That sounds one-sided to me; shouldn’t all soon-to-be-parents be held to the same standards?
Why are temporary parents required to do stuff that permanent parents dont have to do?
I would think that permanent parents should have higher standards.
Why do the temporary parents have higher standards?

How do you and your spouse deal with different parenting styles when raising your children?? Do you ever get in arguments about how the other should parent? We’re really have a tough time with it and any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Basically, nature vs. nurture. Like, do you think a psychopath is born or made? Do you think some of the world’s finest could have turned out to be serial killers if they’d had a different upbringing?
Also, what kind of parenting do you think constitutes “good parenting” or “bad parenting?”
The person with the most thorough and well thought out answer will get the 10 points.
Kat: “mental illness” covers a whole range of illnesses, some of which are genetic, some of which are environmental, many of which are both.

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