In The Loop With Andy Andrews

On this week’s episode, I answer a listener question on the difference between discipline and punishment.   Before getting into that I have a quick story: A few weeks ago, I was getting ready to head out of town and Polly asked, “Have you seen Carver?” Now he’s a huge standard black poodle, and it’s unusual not to see him for a few hours. As I’m about to leave, Polly says that they found him. He was under the garage with Skippy, our outdoor cat. It turns out the cat was sick, and Carver been under there with it for hours taking care of it. Polly took Skippy to the vet and he didn’t make it, but it’s amazing how intelligent these dogs can be. These moments can be times to talk to your kids about death, and give them comfort with how small of an amount of time they will be without someone in the grand scheme of eternity.   So, what is the difference between discipline and punishment? Discipline is what you are creating in a child. Punishment is a necessary part of discipline to get to an end result that you