I agrre with the beating of the child to some extent but at the same time other ways are possible. The person I fear the most in my life is my dad and I can only remember once that he bit me with counter "charbi" and it was because I bit hit some doughter of our housegirl.
All he does is to deny me what I want and that works a lot. If a child wants to ride horse, if he misbehave don't give him and next time he won't do what he did. If chocolate is the childs wish, don't give him unless he behaves well. This atleasr works with me and I strongly agree with all the sides of the argument.
It depends on how you raise a child that you will punish him. If he is raised in a crowdy area like in Kano City, definitely talking will not work but if its in quiet area, beating will not work.
To the parents, don't listen to what others have to say about raising your child. Just look back at your early years if you can remember and how your experiences are for someone bringing up his child then do what you have to do. As long as you are old enough to have the child, then you should be old enough to make decisions and decipline him.
One thing that I think is missing in the northerners parenthood is that mostly, the father leaves the house and the mother with children, he never knows what happens and comes back and ask the wife how they are. "Lafiya lau", she will say and they will only talk about them a few minute. The fathers don't normally sit with their children(boys) and talk to them about mens issues as much as the mother does for her daughter.
