A good friend of mine, and great mother, suggested I read this book along with Herny Townsend’s book, Boundaries. I told her my 2.5 year old was starting to give me discipline problems that time-outs were not remedying. So, I went to Half-Price bookstore and snatched up her recommendations.
Lisa Whelchel’s book had one very important suggestion that I will definitely follow. She says we should be using scripture as a basis for our discipline. As a mother, I should know what God says about behaviors according to the Bible. I should memorize his scriptures and teach to my kids at all times even when I discipline them. For example, instead of letting my children call one another names, I should remind them that God says “no unwholesome talk” should come out of their mouths. This may sound like a “duh” sort of thing for a Christian mother to be enlightened about.. so go ahead, point your finger at this post and say “duh, Jill.”
The rest of Whelchel’s “creative correction” ideas did not inspire me much. I don’t like her idea of using a marble jar to keep track of wrongs and rights… taking out a marble when the child misbehaves and replacing a marble when the child behaves. God’s grace doesn’t work like that and I don’t want to model something different. I do believe children need to be punished when they misbehave, but again, I do not like some of the suggestions in this book – like writing and doing math problems.