First off, I’ll brag a little: our kids are awesome so we (more notably my stay-at-home-mom wife) must be doing something right. However, I know that I could be better at this whole parenting thing; so, I am constantly praying about/seeking ways to improve. One area I’m focusing on right now is discipline. A couple questions for all you other parents out there:

A) Is there any rhyme or reason to your discipline style? If so, I’m curious to hear your thoughts. Read on and give me some feedback. Keep in mind that my kids range from 1-6 years old.

B) If you don’t discipline, would you please? Your kids transform fast food play areas from a place of joy (albeit disturbingly pro-bacterial) into a place of danger for all well-behaved kids who are afraid of the wrath that would befall them should they stoop to your kid’s level and bite, steal, cuss, hit, or pee on someone. Rant/horrendous run-on sentence over. Seriously though-if Junior bites my toddler, a polite “Now Junior, we talked about how 9-year-olds don’t bite. Will you stop if I get you some ice cream?” will someday evolve into: “Now Junior, I thought we talked about not wanting to bail you out of prison again.” Ok, now rant over.

Anyhow, in my effort to rule my household with an iron fist I’ve decided that my discipline style could use a little more organization. We’ve always believed that the more consistent and predictable the consequence, the more effective the consequence. My wife happens to be gifted at remembering which consequence fits which “crime”. I, however, am not and need a reminder of some sort. I’m attempting to put together some sort of “board of doom” (no, I won’t call it that…ok, I might) that lists offenses and corresponding punishments. This project made me curious. Have any of you done something like this? If so, what offenses do you list and what are the corresponding punishments? Off the top of my head, I’m thinking it would be something like:

Disobey – lose a privilege
Lie – head thump
Intentionally injure someone (bite, hit, etc.) – spanking
Talk back – lose a privilege
Intentional rudeness (steal, insult, etc.) – lose a toy
Yell – time out

What do you guys do and/or use? Also, what is the best parenting advice that you have received?

Alternatively, I created this in the event that you guys don’t provide me with any useful feedback: