[lee martell]

Back in the 1960’s, all my Mom had to do was to refer to a spanking belt that hung in the linen closet.
The belt even had a name: Brown Betsy.

“I said it’s time for bed. You heard me! Do I need to go to the Linen Closet and look for Brown Betsy?”
(followed by 3 kids shouting) “NOOO!! No Betsy!!”

Minutes later, it was ‘All quiet on the Western Front’

[Honest Nigerian]

Brown Betsy my ass! I double dog dare you.

[The Westerner]

That is funny! My daddy only used that damn thing once on me. That makes me "passive", I guess.

[SamAdams76]

When my children were babies and toddlers were difficult about going to sleep, we let them cry themselves to sleep in their cribs. After ensuring they were not hungry or needed diaper change, of course. It takes a bit of discipline for parents to ignore a crying child who is being difficult about going to sleep but once they realize they will not be getting any special attention, you see less of that kind of behavior. I believe that parents that constantly take their babies out of the crib when they throw up a fuss will have a much harder time of it.

When they got older, around 6 or so, we took the exact opposite approach. We would still send them to their rooms at bedtime but would allow them to keep a light on and read or listen to the radio at a low volume (no TV however) as long as they wanted, provided they stayed in their beds. Almost every time, we would have to turn off their lights for them when we went to bed as they had fallen asleep long ago.