C
When a child already understood that what he or she chose to do was against your rules or is just plain wrong, I personally believe that's when he or she needs to be punished. Even then, I think he or she should only be physically spanked if that child purposefully defies you and insists on doing so. If a child openly defies, willfully defies, then that must be addressed. If the child is ignorant that what he or she did is wrong, obviously, that child simply needs to be informed of why it was wrong (harmful to self or others) and why he or she must not do it again. As for punishment, it must be reasonable. You want the child to know that you don't really want to spank, let alone actually injure the child. You also need to make the child understand that you're spanking him or her to prevent the child from greater injury that will happen to the child or someone else if the child continues such behavior. You can spank without leaving a mark, and that's where you should draw the line. It's gotta at least sting though. lol. I think other ways of discipline such as time-out or having privileges taken away are better forms of punishment, but again, when a child insists upon defying you, I'm afraid spankings are often the only recourse. If handled correctly, you're not going to have to keep spanking that child anyway. Moses did say "spare the rod, spoil the child. He will not die." Moses was obviously talking about physical punishment here or he wouldn't have mentioned the "he will not die'' aspect. As for punishing a baby for biting, I think that's ridiculous. A baby has no understanding that it's hurting someone by doing that. A loud ouch and frown from the mom or anyone else will get that point across.
