I have a confession. When I was raising my children, I hated disciplining them. Some parents find discipline easy, I didn’t. I wanted my children to like me and enjoy being with me. I hated conflict and furthermore, as an easy-going person who doesn’t get rattled easily, discipline felt, well, antithetical to being a nice parent.
After 30 years of watching children grow up, I realize why we discipline our children. It isn’t to be mean, impose our will on them or even to make them obedient. These are necessary, but the most important reason we discipline children is to teach them self-control.`