Parenting Using Discipline Versus Punishment

Punishment and discipline represent two very different beliefs about parenting children. In response to misbehavior, punishment focuses on suffering or pain as retribution versus discipline that focuses on helping children learn from their mistakes.

Punishment	Discipline
Suffering, pain or loss that serves as retribution	Natural or logical consequences as a result of misbehavior
Belief that more severe punishment means less likely for behavior to occur again	The certainty, not the severity, of the consequence matters
Punishment remains the same no matter what the offense	Discipline is determined based on how to best make amends for the mistake
Punishment comes from outside the child	Discipline eventually comes from inside the child

Using discipline allows you to set effective limits while maintaining loving relationships with your children.