The best method for disciplining a brat is to wait until he grows out of it.
Um i don't agree with that at all. Some people never grow out of stuff like that, you see some little kids act like little bastards when they're young, then when they grow up they still act like bastards when they're teenagers or adults and don't have any respect for the law, their parents, and many people in general etc.
Rules need to be enforced early on as a lot of kids don't grow out of bad behavior- take my brother for example, he was a right little terror when he was little, always throwing temper tantrums and destroying things etc, my mum didn't really know how to discipline him and rarely ever attempted to, and now my brother has grown up with a "i don't care how you feel or what you think, i'm going to do what i want regardless" attitude.
Thing is though, he's now 23 years old and is wasting his youth not doing anything with his life (he lives at home with his mum, does a weekend job at a supermarket and spends his life sleeping or sitting at the computer on the internet. He doesn't drive, doesn't go out socialising, has no real motivation etc and this is all he has done for years and years now- everyone (including me) is telling him to get off his bum and start doing something with his life, he's got lots of money and has no commitments so nothings holding him back so its not exactly like he can use such things as excuses- but as ever, he doesn't listen to nobody, he just does what he wants to do and IMHO (although i hate to say it) what he is doing is being lazy.
I think if my mother had actually imposed a proper system of discipline and consistant set of rules on him when he was a child, he would have probably grown up to have a more considerate attitude of other people's opinions and feelings etc, he would probably be doing more with his life right now if he had been taught how to do it and why he should do it when he was a child etc.
My brother is a good guy, but i do get at my wits end with him sometimes when it comes to stuff like this, nobody seems to be able to get through to him and he doesn't seem to understand what he is missing out on in life- he also seems to be becomming more and more isolated and less in tune with reality etc too (not in a crazy/mad way or anything like that etc, just like his social skills can be pretty poor for his age, he says things sometimes in general conversation with other people that are very offensive to people and he doesn't seem to care or notice etc).
Anyhoo...
I got smacked on the bum plenty of times when i was a kid and it helped teach me back then that bad behaviour would be punished if i pushed my mother enough.
I begin to tire of this 60's hippie politically correct sh*t, we are living in an age that is becomming so nuts and overly politically correct, parents and teachers and pretty much everyone can't do hardly anything at all without getting sued or sent to jail for it etc. I don't think spanking kids is correct as a form of punishment in all situations, but at the end of the day most parents have the common sense on how to do it properly and when to do it etc, so in a lot of situations i agree with it and i think parents should have the right to spank their kids- kids aren't innocent all the time, sometimes they can be very cunning and many will emotionally blackmail or con their parents into doing things for them when they can. Sometimes kids do need to be spanked in various situations and put back in their place when they refuse to listen to reason and are repeatedly and deliberately very naughty/bad especially when they know and fully understand that what they are doing is very bad and is completely against their parents wishes/rules etc.