English, baby!

Disciplining Kids

Date: Apr 02 2010

Themes: Family, How To

Grammar: Verbs with "-ing"

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Intro

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2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

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We’ve all seen kids screaming, throwing temper tantrums, or misbehaving in public. As a parent, it can be difficult to know what to do when your child acts out. A stern lecture doesn’t always do the trick. But you don’t want to be accused of being cruel for spanking your children, either.

These days, spanking is less acceptable than it used to be. Even though a lot of parents still use spanking to discipline their kids, many people fear that spanking your children will teach them that violence is OK. Find out what Beren and Marni think parents should do to keep their children in line.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Marni

Beren

Marni: So do you have any firm beliefs on disciplining kids?

Beren: As far as like spanking versus timeouts or…

Marni: Right.

Beren: Um, not really. I don’t know. I ask myself, you know, if I ever have children, how will I discipline them? Will I offer positive reinforcement for the good behavior?

Marni: Absolutely.

Beren: I don’t know, it just seems like training a dog, I guess. It seems like such a weird thing to do.

Marni: Well and I think there’s a different mind shift. Like there’s a stigma now about spanking whereas when I was a little child, you know, nobody really thought about it. And certainly back in the 50s and things it was like sort of what you did. But now it’s all about timeouts like you were saying, and maybe taking things away, like taking away allowances and privileges, and that seems to be more of the philosophy.

Beren: I’m not totally anti-spanking.

Marni: Sometimes a good spanking seems to do the trick.

Beren: Sometimes a good whack gets them in line.

Grammar Point

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Discussion

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Beren doesn’t have strong feelings about the best way to discipline kids. She likes the idea of offering positive reinforcement for good behavior, but she is not sure it is the best way to keep kids in line. She thinks spanking might be necessary sometimes.

Marni points out that spanking is not as acceptable as it used to be. More parents try alternative forms of discipline, such as giving their children timeouts or taking things away from them if they act out. Marni remembers that when she was a kid, more parents spanked their kids.

Do you think spanking is OK? What is the best way to discipline children?

Comments

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Sara Abdulrahman

Saudi Arabia

we shoulde not spank or whack our children becouse when we do that he/she will be not self-confident and he/she will can not say or explain his/her opinion !!

we should respect and be kindly with them

this is when we want them to be okay

right !

kakuna1981

Poland

Im not supporter of spanking.

sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.

always first try to explain. talk and show what is good what is not and why?

If it is not working than try more strict ways like taking things away or time out

but never violence!

bystander :-)

Hungary

Every child is different, disciplining them is a more complex process and it depends on their personality. Sometimes it is enough a loud voice, sometimes a spank or timeout, sometimes you have to realise you can do nothing just give them the time that they need to give free course to them anger or passion.

Don't think if you will have a child you would do everything in a perfectly way that you imagined before. It's not so romantic, it is a hard work!!

machina

Hungary

an advice :) do not copy text from word to this place

machina

Hungary

There are many good books in this topic, and a documentray too: <!-[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:HyphenationZone>21</w:HyphenationZone> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]-> <!- /* Style Definitions / p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:””; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:70.85pt 70.85pt 70.85pt 70.85pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -> <!~~-[if gte mso 10]> <style> /~~ Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:”Normál táblázat”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:””; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”;} </style> <![endif]->

Suzuki, David (2005): Origins of human agression – The nature of things, CBC Television

monica1988

China

I think parent s should discipline themselves before discipline kids. when I was young, my teacher told me that parents were the best example for kids. kid did not have the ablity to distinct good or bad, they only had the ablity to imitate their parents.

Dangerdude

Syrian Arab Republic

It's really a great lesson ,,, (Deciplining kids.)

Which is, to me the hardest job a parent does.

'Spanking kids,' yeah, we were used to that

in schools , at home and still with regret in many countries.

I think that punishing a children by beating or spanking them , could create a feeling of rancour against their parents.

we should think before we do any action that can be cruel or leads to violence in one's family.

Thank you EnglishBaby,

Marny, Beren.

jejo

United States

Hello guys,

I want to ask you about my steps that I made it in the below comment.

Do you have other idea about that? because the topic is so important to understand to treat and deal with our children.

Thanks so much

jejo

United States

I have several comment about the lecture.

1- the volume of the sound is low, so i can't hear it unless I put my headphone maybe I have trouble hearing.

2- It is a good lecture because have a lot of usefull vocabulary.

3- I think the best way to keep children in the line is to follow my steps:

A- to explain to the children that something they have done. it's not acceptable.

B- To encourage them if the don't do it again by give them some reward stuff or whatever.

C- to prevent them from something they like such as go a picnic with his/her friends.

D- to spank them to show them that you (parents) are angery.

sorry to made a long comment.

venissa sun

China

Kids

batang99

United States

Sometimes timeouts are more humiliating than just spanking. Of course it depends on the age and circumatances to decide which one. First of all, I think we need to be faithful to our momentary inner mind and try to read your emotions first. Then, we can judge the selection of disciplines natually.