Disciplining Other People's Children

From your child's friend in your house to the neighborhood kid on the playground, when—and how—should you step in?

Downstairs in the church social hall last Sunday, I witnessed the following spectacle: Parents were drinking coffee and munching on doughnuts. Kids were running underfoot, some attached to mothers or fathers, some not. Suddenly there was a loud wail, followed by a young girl's insistent voice shouting, "I won't! And you can't make me." She stood in the corner in a pink frilly dress. "You're not my mother!" Happily, the mother in question dashed to the rescue, saving the rest of us from the awkwardness of trying to parent someone else's child.

It's a familiar scene and a familiar problem: disciplining other people's kids. Whether it's at church, at the playground, or in your own home, it's always a little tricky to know when and how to intervene when another child is acting up. ...


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