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I have a kid and I was kid.

Kids can be controlled so that they behave in public.

I was a holy terror as a kid and my mother always had to yell at me many times until she would finally get really mad and give me a bunch of hard smacks. She never had me under control. She always gave me too many warnings before she finally punished me. My Dad never gave me any warning at all, out of the blue would come a smack for the slightest little infraction, and after he smacked you, he explained why he smacked you. Since I knew he might smack me for the slightest infraction, I always played it safe around him and minded my Ps and Qs. My mother spanked me lots more than my Dad ever did, but his methods were effective and Mom's were not.

My daughter was always a sweet, well behaved child and I never had to spank her, just giving her a sharp word was enough. My wife had a method to make sure that my daughter did not make noise or misbehave in church. My wife would quietly tell my daughter that if she did not behave, that my wife would give her a smack when they were out of church. Then, if my daughter did not listen, my wife would just keep showing her an additional finger to indicate the number of smacks her misbehavior was going to cost her when they got home. After a couple spankings at home, with the number of smacks equal to the number of fingers my wife flashed to my daughter during church, my daughter got the message and was both quiet and well behaved during church.

Getting a child to be well behaved every minute is not possible. Having enough control over your child so that the child behaves when out in public is not difficult. It just takes discipline and consistency. It is not much different than training a dog, really, but most folks are not very good a training their dog, either.

Well, my nephew always managed to misbehave in public and punishment never worked with him. He was spanked, talked to, sent to his room-nothing worked. He was just a hyper kid. He threw something on a ladies white pants at a party and as his father was dragging him up the stairs to his room he kept saying "But, but Daddy I don't know what makes me do those things!" His younger brother and sister were entirely different. I always felt sorry for the poor kid-these days they probably would have him drugged up with Ritalin.

He did grow out of it. He is in law school in Alabama and politically very conservative.