by Mary Caliendo

Created on: April 21, 2009

I think discipline training should most definitely be included in any prenatal or parenting class that is offered. As the good old adage says, being a parent does not come with a training manual. And there is no book written on right or wrong. And while there are a great deal of books written on children and parenting, none can actually exemplify what a face to face discussion that can take place in the classroom setting could provide.

In fact, I even like the idea that I recently saw as a part of a documentary of sorts. It took place in a high school as part of a regular curriculum class. It was one class in a series of classes on children, and marriage. Part of the class was the children had to "pair-off" as if married and each were given a baby. (doll with timer that would "cry" every so often) The high school seniors were so shocked at what it took to be a parent. It wasn't just buy cute baby clothes and dress them up! It was real work and these kids even lost sleep as "baby" would cry in the middle of the night. Just like in real life. It was shown that many good lessons were learned in this kind of classroom exercise. This added to the high schoolers knowledge that it would take an extreme amount of their own discipline to actually take care of a baby and raise them.

I think this would prove to be an invaluable asset to those individuals whom had never been a parent. A classroom setting would also provide the participants with discussions and questions that could be immediately answered. Educated people make good choices. More education could not hurt. An instructor can provide tips and information on how to properly discipline a child. Being a parent of four children in different age stages provides, at times the source of major frustrations. A qualified teacher can host an in-depth account of easy ways to help a parent if they may reach the levels of frustration. What can a parent do to help themselves and their children. This may reduce the number of abusive situations that we all read about in the papers and such.

Prenatal classes can encompass a myriad of things from breast feeding, to introducing foods to toddlers, and finally how-tos on taking care of the children that they are about to have. This class could provide them with resources to take home with them for further review as their children grow older. I do think that the prenatal classes would be very well-rounded if a discipline class was provided as part of parental early learning.

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