Originally Posted by Poetry

I don't know. When I was growing up, I got in all sorts of trouble. My parents tried more things than I can remember to try to get me to behave. Time outs, groundings, taking away of privileges, paying me, offering payment then slowly removing it, not letting me go to birthday parties or camp, strict talks, sympathetic talks, writing lines, doing chores for free I'd normally get paid for, not letting me read, not letting me have friends over. Who knows what else.

Nothing worked but pain. Immediate pain or threat of immediate pain.

I think on some children creative positive or negative reinforcement works. Probably on most children. But I really can't blame my parents for resorting to spanking me. I certainly would have.