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Poor impulse control

While one might argue that some hormone is responsible, I suspect it is a lack of parental control.

I remember seeing my nephew reaching for something one day.

His father told him "Kenny, put that down!" Kenny ignored him. His father said "Kenny, if you don't put that down right now, I am going to come over there and spank you!!!" Kenny ignored him. His father said "Kenny, that is it! If you don't put it down right this very second, I am going to come over and spank you!!!" at the top of his lungs. At this point, Kenny was bored and moved on to something else.

Years of trouble, yelling without action, failure, Ritalin, selling Ritalin at school, Juvenile Hall, pot, meth, and who knows what else have passed by since that day.

Kenny is now in the Ohio state penitentiary serving 8 years to life.

His father has no idea what went wrong with that boy.

I bet that if you asked, he would say Kenny had poor impulse control.

"Kenny, that is it! If you don't put it down right this very second, I am going to come over and spank you!!!"

My first wife's father was a child psychiatrist. His favorite saying was, "Never strike a child except in anger." He insisted that you had to hit the kid while he was still engaged in the behavior, or he wouldn't connect it with getting whacked. He thought, "Wait 'til your father comes home" was the worst possible thing. By the time the spanking comes, the kid doesn't connect it with what he did.

"I bet that if you asked, he would say Kenny had poor impulse control."

No, I would say that Kenny suffered from PPS (poor parenting syndrome). Failure to obey a parent is not poor impulse control. Impulse control is when you get the sudden urge to beat the living c**p out of someone who is irritating you, but you don't do it. People with poor impulse control act on their sudden violent impulses.