Getting Grounded

I just finished seeing a movie and there's this scene where a kid was being rude to his parents, so he got grounded. The friend I was seeing the movie with started to laugh and when I asked him what was funny, he told me he just imagined being that rude to his parents and their reaction, I immediately began to laugh myself.

_{Photo by Arifur Rahman}

The funny thing was that I've had this same thought in the past before. I've asked myself how I would have turned out if my parents didn't hit me with a cane every time I misbehaved or did something wrong and I'm sorry to say it but I don't think I would have turned out great.

Now I know that there are other ways to discipline a child, grounding them shouldn't be one though. People say it's wrong for kids to fear their parents but I say it's not. I think what's wrong is when the kids gets scared of their parents all the time, but if you're asking me if there should be certain times where kids needs to be scared of their parents, I'd say yes. And I say this because I believe that fear helps to keep the child in check. It makes them think twice before doing something stupid.

My dad is definitely one of those men out there who knows how to keep his kids in check. There have been days where my brothers would mess up and he won't say a word, only to wake up at midnight and flog the living daylight out of them as they sleep. I can't remember the countless nights I've had to jump up with fear and almost run for my life just because my dad was disciplining one of the big bros.

And yet the next morning, he still plays with us and let us feel that fatherly love. The only difference is that we all know at the back of our minds that if we mess up, we will be getting severely punished and that thought is more than enough to keep us straight.

If I was only being grounded every time I did something wrong, I would be a completely different human being and I don't mean it in a good way because I know how careless I would act, if all my punishment is going to be is my parents seizing my stuff and making me stay indoors for a week.

Trust me, I'd rather you seize my stuff and not make me watch TV for a month than to have a five minutes cane session with my old man. So yeah, back then I probably thought my old man hated me but now that I think about it, I know he was just trying to get me straight and trust me when I say it worked.