Disciplining Children

• Joseph F. Smith, "Love of Mother and Father", Ensign, August 2004

Reprint of 1910 sermon entitled "Family Government"
"Use no lash and no violence, but argue, or rather reason ... with these means, if you cannot gain your boys and girls ... there will be no means left ..."

• Interview with Pres. and Sis. Hinckley, "At Home with the Hinckleys", Oct. 2003

Pres: "I don't believe that children need to be beaten."

• Pres. Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine, 5th Ed., p.286

Cited in the Gospel Doctrine Teacher's Manual, 1996, lesson 21
"There should [not] be any of us so unwisely indulgent, so thoughtlessand so shallow in our affection for our children that we dare not check them in a wayward course, in wrongdoing and in their foolish love for the things of the world more than the things of righteousness, for fear of offending them."

• Wilford Woodruff, Deseret Weekly, June 22nd, 1889, p. 823

Cited in: Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Wilford Woodruff, Ch. 16, p. 168
Don't be tyrants.
Good quote on spanking.

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Scriptural advice on reproach/discipline.
Betimes - quickly/immediately
Sharpness - not bluntness or harshness, but with precision. Clear communication is key.

• President Gordon B. Hinckley, "Feed the Spirit, Nourish the Soul", Ensign, Oct. 1998

Speaks of the need to be guided by the spirit in our efforts to discipline our children.
Gives a story of a boy who thought his father hated him because of his father's temper.

Cross-References

• Child Abuse
• Parenthood
• Wayward Children