Punishment

I was so sad to read yesterday that a 9 year old girl ended up dead after a punishment doled out by her mother and grandmother.  Apparently they made her run for 3 hours without stopping because she lied to her grandmother about eating a candy bar. You can see the story here: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/22/stepmom-grandmother-charged-in-girls-running-death/

This makes me sad and scared at the same time.  Obviously this punishment was way out of control and over the top.  But, when you think about it, any punishment has the potential to get out of hand.  It's actually in the news a lot, punishments that get out of hand and the child ends up seriously hurt or dead.  When you are spanking your child, what if you put in one too many hits?  What if you make your child pull weeds, (I had to do this many times at my grandmother's) and they end up dehydrated?  What if the coach makes your child run at football practice and you didn't know they had a heart condition that couldn't handle it?  Everyday, we as parents have to come up with ways to punish are children in ways that are severe enough to fit the crime and yet easy enough because they are, after all, just children.  It can be a very fine line.

Either way, every time I read an article like this, it makes me want to hug my son even harder and thank God he is in my life and hope I never lose him especially because of something avoidable like this.