Dear parents, please don’t make me part of your child’s punishment
There’s a difference between a difficult, unavoidable moment happening in public, and deliberately turning a punishment into a public spectacle.
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If discipline has to happen there and then, perhaps the aim should be to shrink the audience rather than enlarge it, says the writer.
PHOTO: ISTOCKPHOTO
Karen Tee
There are few social situations more excruciating than finding yourself trapped near a parent loudly disciplining a child in public.
One moment, you are going about your mundane business, perhaps strolling through a shopping mall or perusing a menu. The next, a few tables away, a tiny human is in full meltdown mode, crying and perhaps rolling on the floor, while an irate parent oscillates between embarrassment and increasingly loud reprimands.