Some friends have some "spirited" little 3 yr old boys. They are of the "don't break their spirit" parenting model.
The parents do get embarrassed when they won't behave or obey. But if I'm there, I'll pick the little "free spirits" up, set them in front of their parent, and say firmly "obey your mom/dad". Yeah, they glare at me, so they FULLY understand what's going on.
I hate that.
Teaching them to control themselves is NOT going to break their spirit. If those kids don’t learn some self-control as kids, the parents will have NO control over them once they hit puberty.
When my youngest was two and refused to pick up her toys, I took her, placed her feet on my feet, held her hands, “walked” her over to her toy, bend her over, placed her hands on the toy, walked her over to the toy box, and pried her fingers apart to make her drop the toy in the toy box.
She screamed bloody murder the whole time; you’d think I was cutting her arm off. But she learned. She did finally put her toys away herself, and she learned that she HAD to obey me. I wanted it in her head that I could MAKE her so that when she was really too old for me to *make* her do it physically, I could still make her through authority.
And, boy, let me tell you, has that girl got spirit. Pity the guy that tries anything inappropriate with her.
I like your tagline.