The Parenting Thread

[Raider]

Happy father's day all. My wife and son have preordered transformers devastation for me so pretty happy with my score

[Starscream77]

Happy Fathers Day to all of us who have forgotten what 8 hours sleep means.

Scored Cupola off the wife which was an awesome surprise, didn't know she paid attention to my TF ramblings

[jazzcomp]

Happy Father's day go all Dads! May our kids inherit our love forTFs.

[BigTransformerTrev]

Happy Father's day go all Dads! May our kids inherit our love forTFs.

Yeah, hope all the other Dads out there had as nice a Fathers Day as I did.

Orion definetly knows the Transformers now, when he sees an Autobot symbol anywhere he goes 'Transformers!' - its very cute


Since becoming a Dad I've been turned around on the idea of spanking. Bear in mind I'm not trying to kick off a heated debate about this or judging anyone in any way, because I know it can be a touchy subject.

My wife is very anti-spanking. I've always held that as long as it's done appropriately and never with excessive frequency or force there is nothing wrong with it. I was spanked and I can only think of two times in my entire life that my mum probably went a bit far. Never resented my parents for it or felt scarred by it.

Orion is getting towards 3 now and when he was a bit younger I had spanked him a couple of times. It was usually if he kept doing the same thing after multiple warnings and if he was hurting someone (the cat, his little sister etc). It was never too hard and on a nappy-padded bum but the shock was enough to upset him. But my missus kept telling me that it sent the wrong message by telling him that violence was wrong by answering it with another act of violence.

I've come to see her point of view. In part I think it's just because I am so in love with my son and we have such a close relationship that for him to ever look at me in fear would just break my heart so I don't want to spank him (I didn't want to before or ever but saw it as perhaps a necessary action). Currently we are doing 'time out' where if he keeps it up he goes to his room for two minutes while we hold the door shut - he hates that because he wants to be with everyone else. And if he is hurting the cat/sister/mum I will grab his arm quite firmly, pull him away and give him a telling off which does upset him. But I'm officially a non-spanker now and think I will remain that way. Never thought I'd be on that side of the fence but it seems to be where I've ended up.

Once again, I am really not judging or condemming anyone who gives the odd spank if its done appropriately. I thought it was really stupid when that mum got arrested a couple of years ago for giving her kid a little whack on the bum in a shopping centre when the kid was going off its nut. But I'm interested to hear what other parents think about spanking in general. I'd bring this up on FB but I just know it would bring all the crazies out of the woodwork to scream at each other, people are a little bit more sane here

[Trent]

Yeah, hope all the other Dads out there had as nice a Fathers Day as I did.

Orion definetly knows the Transformers now, when he sees an Autobot symbol anywhere he goes 'Transformers!' - its very cute


Since becoming a Dad I've been turned around on the idea of spanking. Bear in mind I'm not trying to kick off a heated debate about this or judging anyone in any way, because I know it can be a touchy subject.

My wife is very anti-spanking. I've always held that as long as it's done appropriately and never with excessive frequency or force there is nothing wrong with it. I was spanked and I can only think of two times in my entire life that my mum probably went a bit far. Never resented my parents for it or felt scarred by it.

Orion is getting towards 3 now and when he was a bit younger I had spanked him a couple of times. It was usually if he kept doing the same thing after multiple warnings and if he was hurting someone (the cat, his little sister etc). It was never too hard and on a nappy-padded bum but the shock was enough to upset him. But my missus kept telling me that it sent the wrong message by telling him that violence was wrong by answering it with another act of violence.

I've come to see her point of view. In part I think it's just because I am so in love with my son and we have such a close relationship that for him to ever look at me in fear would just break my heart so I don't want to spank him (I didn't want to before or ever but saw it as perhaps a necessary action). Currently we are doing 'time out' where if he keeps it up he goes to his room for two minutes while we hold the door shut - he hates that because he wants to be with everyone else. And if he is hurting the cat/sister/mum I will grab his arm quite firmly, pull him away and give him a telling off which does upset him. But I'm officially a non-spanker now and think I will remain that way. Never thought I'd be on that side of the fence but it seems to be where I've ended up.

Once again, I am really not judging or condemming anyone who gives the odd spank if its done appropriately. I thought it was really stupid when that mum got arrested a couple of years ago for giving her kid a little whack on the bum in a shopping centre when the kid was going off its nut. But I'm interested to hear what other parents think about spanking in general. I'd bring this up on FB but I just know it would bring all the crazies out of the woodwork to scream at each other, people are a little bit more sane here

I'm the same Trev, I was always of the opinion that a little whack on the bum wouldn't hurt, but now, having a son of my own, I'm completely against the idea. Like you though, I have nothing against parents who do choose to spank their kids. As the parental saying goes, "You do what you have to do".

And yes, Fathers Day was awesome

[GoktimusPrime]

Just read yet another article about some new-age method of parenting, blah blah blah. There are so many different schools of thought when it comes to managing children's behaviour, and it can be mind boggling for new parents. In my experience as both a parent and teacher, I just describe behaviour management with what I call the "Three Be's":

• Be firm

• Be fair

• Be consistent

In my experience, if you stick to these three principles, then the behaviour management side of parenting (or teaching) becomes pretty easy (most of the time ). I found that it was especially important to get this done when our daughter was around age 1-2 - hence why it's often called the "Terrible Twos." It's a bloody tough time -- Yuki drove us mental at this age -- but because we stuck to the 'Three Be's', things got a LOT easier from age 3 onwards. I don't need to shout or get angry or scold her, because she mostly just manages her own behaviour now.

-----------------------------------------------------
*Special behavioural needs not withstanding

[GoktimusPrime]

For anyone who may be considering having a Transformers-based baby name, here are some Transformers names which might pass off as regular human names:
* Alan (♀)
* Alice (♀)
* Angela (♀)
* Arcana (♀)
* Ariel (♂♀)
* Chase (♂♀)
* Cosmo(s) (♂♀)
* Daniel (Witwicky) (♂)
* Esmeral(da) (♀)
* Irving (Witwicky) (♂)
* Jack (♂)
* Joe (♂), or Jo (♀)
* Karmen (♀)
* Kirk (♂)
* Leonie (♀)
* Minerva (♀)
* Nancy (♀)
* Nautica (♀)
* Orion (Pax) (♂)
* Rodney (♂)
* Rosanna (♀)
* William (Witwicky) (♂)
* Yuki(kaze) (♂♀; depending on Kanji/meaning)

That's all I can think of for now.

[Bladestorm]

Given the popularity of Transformers over the years I can't help but wonder how many kids named Optimus there are in the world... possibly even scarier would be if there were kids named after a certain yellow vw/camero.

My son went to kindergarten with kids named Mui Mui and Gucci (handbag brands) so I suppose it wouldn't be too far fetched.

[BigTransformerTrev]

Given the popularity of Transformers over the years I can't help but wonder how many kids named Optimus there are in the world... possibly even scarier would be if there were kids named after a certain yellow vw/camero.

My son went to kindergarten with kids named Mui Mui and Gucci (handbag brands) so I suppose it wouldn't be too far fetched.

There was that army sargeant in the US ten years ago that legally changed his name to Optimus Prime

[Trent]

There was that army sargeant in the US ten years ago that legally changed his name to Optimus Prime

At least he only has himself to blame for that. He's not inflicting a lifetime of torment on to his offspring..