I am sorry about your childhood experience and recognize and admire your desire to do things differently.
The point you seem to be missing is that this is an 11 month old.
I have kids. My youngest son crawled at 4.5 months and walked at 8 months. He was a freaking nightmare.
He was basically a baby brain in a toddlers body. He could walk under the kitchen table without hitting his head. That’s how little he was.
He was into everything. We had to take the kitchen chairs out and put them in the dining room b/c he would slide them over to the counters to climb up on them to explore the cupboards. We would take him down, put the chair back and like a wind up doll his little feet would start moving before he hit the ground and he would be walking back over to get the chair and push it back over to the cupboard. I can even recall eating meals for better than a week standing around the center island because we got tired of moving the chairs back in and out.
We had to baby proof the hell out of the house and literally had to step over gates to get anywhere until he learned to climb them successfully.
We basically lived in a bare house for about a year until he got over his exploratory phase and took direction a little better.
In other words, we made the environment as safe as we could for him and turned him loose. The only time we intervened was if he was in moderate to serious physical danger.
To stifle a child like that and actually discourage exploration through physical punishment at that age is inexcusable and indicates a complete lack of understanding where the child is at developmentally at that age.
What the OP should do, instead of posting a parenting question on T-Nation (huh?!?) is find out what kind of community ed is avaible in their area.
Not only is it a great way to learn about parenting, but they will meet other parents in the community and will develop friendships that will follow them through school. My wife still has a monthly girls night out with her Mom’s group from years ago.
Additionally, it can really help with sanity b/c you develop a peer group you may not have otherwise had which affords a lot of comfort.
[quote]ThatGirl77 wrote:
The Savage wrote:
If you think I personally attacked you, then I’m sorry (Don’t hit me - jk). I think you were being polite in calling me a dummy, it’s OK I’ve been called worse 
You did not give the full story t’ll now. I never said you were a bad parent, I’m just saying there are alternatives.
Well, it certainly seemed that you were attacking me personally since you quoted me and then went off on other ways to discipline.
I didn’t think the entire story was relevant - seasoned parents would understand where I was coming from, I thought.
Kids are very resilient and after awhile the spankings are not going to work, think about how often you spank and the degree of force used. Again I’m not implying you are going overboard, I don’t know it’s up to you to decide that.
Spankings don’t work on a 13 yr old, 15 yr old, 18 yr old. I know, because I’ve bene that kid that got spanked at those ages. I come form an abusive home, which is why I do things diff w/ my kids. My dad’s philosophy is hit first don’t ask questions later and if we try and explain the situation, hit again. We learned to shut up and take it and now none of us live near him. Leaving bruises on your kid is absolutely unacceptable and is not something I will ever do to mine. I don’t even come close. (That’s just my rant and not being pissy at you.)
I will say IMO, that taking away a privelege has more control over a child because they need to earn it back.
To a degree, yes. But it’s not the only or best way for all kids. I think discipline and punishment varies greatly. Yes, we do the 123 rule, yes we do time out, yes we take priveleges, and then yes, finally we spank.
Kids are great imitators, too, so if mo mand dad are good examples, then it will go well for the kids, too. Not to say everyone who is wonderful and perfect will have equally wonderful perfect children, but they’ll have good examples to learn from. Of course, I had bad examples and learned from that what not to do.
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