ANSWERS: 56
  • My mom did that to me, and I did that to my son. It works! I wouldn't say to do it so hard that it draws blood or anything like that.
  • Thats the way we did it and it works!!!!
  • I know someone that did that as a last resort after trying a bunch of other things. I would recommend trying to make the child understand it causes pain. It's a slower process, but as long as they aren't running around biting other small children, it's worth it to not traumatize your kid.
  • In my opinion no; the mother was wrong to do this. By reciprocating the childs' behaviour she is teaching the child that it is ok to hit.
  • I think it is fine I did that to my son and it showed him how it felt when he bit someone and that was the 1st and last time he bit anyone
  • I did something like that accidently. My son bit me on the thigh as I was drying dishes. I reflexivly swatted at the thing that hurt so badly, which was my son! I had a hard plastic dish in my hand at the time and so it smacked him in the back of the head. I had been trying to get him to stop biting but it wasn't working. This worked! It didn't hurt him but it shocked him so much that he 'got it'! Then 3 years later my second son did the same thing and I did much the same accidental swat. And it worked a second time. Protecting kids does not teach them much except that they have no reason to learn anything. Biting a kid back is almost always going to work because a kid can think and reason, and this is such a direct example of cause and effect that it sinks in real quick.
  • No, the child looks up to her parents. If they do something, she will copy. If her mother told her off, she will know it's wrong to do, but now that - through her eyes - biting has been "approved" (in that her mother bit her hand as well) she'll only do it more.
  • No, that mother just taught her daughter that it is acceptable to bite someone..after all her mother does it.
  • I personally thought she is although I've never done it.
  • nothing wrong at all ....I bet the kid won't do it again ...lesson learned ...end of story ... short sharp and to the point .... thats how I and all my friends were raised ... non of the mamby pamby that the dogooders of today preach(and wrongly)and EVERYONE of us turned out 100% ok
  • Magic 8-Ball says "Most Likely."
  • That mother is WAY wrong! That's just plain CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When my sons bite my hand I scream then my wife does that kind of disciplen.
  • no. How is telling the kid not to bite them you bite them as punishment going to help?? I don't get it
  • It teaches him that it HURTS and should not be done! Even some animals will whop thier babies with a paw when they do wrong. But it depends too on how often it is done how hard and so on.
  • Well it certainly teaches the child how the world works. Whoever has the biggest weapons (or theeth in this case) wins. You bite me I bite you; you hit me I hit you, you shoot my brother I shoot yours, you attack my country I attack yours. The kid will make a great gang member or end up following some stupid polititians call to war.
  • no no no no no. This teaches the child that when their little sister does something of the sort to do that back to the little sister. I prefer a strong, firm tone and disdain for it. What happens when a friend does something...does it make it right to do it back to them?
  • Sounds kind of oxymoronic, doesnt it. I will bite you, to show you, it isnt right to bite.
  • I remember my Mum doing that to me when I was small, I never did it again. She didn't bite hard, just enough to make me understand how it felt. I also remember my playgroup teacher doing it to a little boy in my class. He would always bite, then one day the teacher bit him back and he never bit again! Oh, by the way - this was 40 years ago! I know that it wouldn't happen in a school nowadays!
  • My mother taught me this way, and it works if done properly. If you just say "i bit you because you bit me, see, don't bite people." then, no, that sends the wrong message. But if you bite the child and say "see, it hurts when you bite people. You shouldn't do it!" It's fairly effective.
  • my cat bites me but i have never considered biting him back, i must try this
  • Every child reacts differently to a certain type of punishment. try it out. If it worked, then yes. If not, still yes, just try something different next time.
  • Hmmmm.....I wonder if Jeffrey Dahmer started out this way?
  • People probably won't like this but...as long as she didn't bite hard enough to hurt, just enough to let her daughter know it wasn't a good feeling, I don't see anything wrong with it. That's the only way they could get my brother to stop biting when he was little because he would draw blood!
  • yes, the 2 1/2 year old understands and can identify that she doesn't like the bite back, so she will think and recall before she continues. babys will realize that it hurts...and evetual stop...toys are like teeth and they are experienceing their new teeth toy...teach them boundries...as she lounges toward you to bite loung toward her and she will eventually retreat rather quickly...start doing it now...
  • This is the correct way to do it. Many times, it just does not work to talk, yell, or explain to a young child. I have seen this and it works! It is the best way. It does not teach them that it is ok to bite. They may not realize that it actually hurts. Do it once, and nine times out of ten, they will not do it again.
  • I used to do something like that with my daughter when she pulled my hair and pinched me, I did it back. She never got in the biting stage, if she did, I probably would bite back. I think that it is effective, as long as your not doing it in a abusive way.
  • I think it makes sense. And it depends on how hard the bite was. She needs to learn its not okay, and what's a better way to learn it than having it happen to you?? Obviously this doesnt work with all cases.
  • I think it works. And I'd probably do it too out of frustration.
  • Whatever works. Sometimes the more popular methods just do not work. When my oldest daughter was 6 years old I found that she liked to play with matches. I talked..I explained..I punished..I spanked. Nothing worked, until one day I was cleaning her room and found burnt matches behind her bed..along with pieces of paper. I took my lighter and burned her fingers. Not enough to blister (it didn't even leave a red mark)..just enough that it hurt a little bit. Then I said, "Imagine that a hundred times worse, over your whole body..and the body of your little sister, and your baby brother". She never did it again. Some people would say that was an excessive punishment..but she was not hurt and the playing with matches stopped. She agrees to this day that I did the right thing, otherwise she would have kept doing it.
  • I did that to my daughter when she was that age. My mom told me I was being mean, but it sure did fix the problem.
  • A kindy teacher did that when I was 5 - she bit me back about 10 times as hard as I bit her. I don't think it taught me anything worthwhile. She should have put me in the naughty corner and said very sternly "you must never bite!". She let other kids bully me and I used to bite because I was the smallest child in my group and some other kids used to bash me. She could have done something to stop them. I bit her because she fooled with a painting I was doing. If she'd have pretended to cry and say how much her hand hurt, I would have felt sorry for biting her. So, I think this mother was wrong in her discipline.
  • Depends on the child. Some kids get it the first time Mom says "No bites!"... others need more convincing. Now, if this mom and daughter duo have been biting each other for some time, this method is obviously NOT working, and she should opt for alternate forms of discipline.
  • For my son, I tried resoning, time out, spanking everything. Nothing worked until I hit him back with what ever he hit the child with. He didn't realize he was hurting them, after I did it back he understood. Now he doesn't hit..If it's to the point that you are harming your children then obviously don't do it :)
  • I have heard of this method of child discipline, and that it works. This method shows them what they make others feel. That child may not have understood that getting bitten hurts, but now she certainly does!
  • Absolutely not. Parents should be setting examples for their children, not acting like them. If your child does something wrong or socially unacceptable, reciprocating that behavior towards them only makes them think it's ok to act that way. What's next? Some kid punches the daughter at school, and she punches back instead of handling it in a mature fashion. Teaching tit-for-tat policies is a big mistake, a parent should know better.
  • Well it isn't the most practical way... but it worked on me.
  • My dad did the same thing with me when I was that young and I have no complaints.
  • if it works for the kid, as long as she doesn't take it too far and harm him, i'll stand for it. worked in my family.
  • No, it just teaches the child it is ok to bite, but you may get bitten back. I disciplined my duaghter when she started the bitting stage at age 2, spank on her behind once and make her stand in the corner with her nose on the wall for 2 minutes, then ask, 'do you know why you were put in time out?', if no answer i explain why and ask, ' are you going to do it again?', that is when they usually say 'no' and appologize. having a child stand in a corner with their nose touching the wall works with me, when she got , too, old for that- then she got sent to her room and privlages taken away. when it comes to discipline, only have them in time out in minutes parallel to their age. if the child is 2 then they have a 2 minute time out, so on and so forth- plus ask them why were they in time out, if they really can't give and explanation, then explain to them what they had done to be in time out.when they are 6 years old then they get sent to their rooms and privlages taken away. you have to have sterness in your voice and actions, but unconditional love, too. i hope your neighbor doesn't bite the tot in public, that would raise eyebrows this will be reported to child services as abuse.
  • When children start the biting stage, they don't realize they're hurting you when they do that. By biting them back (just hard enough for them to experience minor pain, not draw blood or anything!) they realize that they are hurting you and will most times stop.
  • Children learn what they live. As for parents, you teach people how to treat you.
  • Well if the 2 yr old started playing in the toliet would she do that too. I mean pls. hopefully an adult would have more self control than a toddler.
  • she was correct
  • NO!! That is stupid and makes me laugh. What do you teach a child when you bite or spank? That it is ok and a way of comunicating... How childish can you be..!
  • It is an old fashioned form of disipline. I was explained that it works because a kid doesn't know biting hurts unless they are bit. When you hit your hand stings so you know it hits. I don't know that I would do it myself, but it is probably older than any of us on here.
  • When my Auntie was tiny she bit my Mum ( who was just a baby..my auntie was about 2)...My nan then took my aunties hand and gave it a quick nip - not as a punishment..but to more or less say that look this is what it feels like when you bite someone..its not nice see? My auntie never bit again.. So i can see why your neighbour did what she did!
  • I agree with those of you who said yes. When you're child bites you and you tell them no a few times yet they continue, then yes. say they bite you on the arm, bite them back just enough to hurt, not to break skin or to be mean back to them. Then when they tear up say "now do you see why we don't bite?" It worked for my nephew and the kids in the rest of my family. Your not really teaching them to bite if you make them understand what they are doing hurts. It's really a matter of opinion as i'm sure you have found out by reading all these answers. It's wrong, when there are mothers/fathers out there who do it to be mean b/c that is alot of cases. People today think that spanking is child abuse to use time out. That is so stupid, it's only child abuse for those ignorant parents who are out of control. Time-out is pointless!
  • No way, she's trying to teach her daughter not to bite by biting her? Does this make sense at all?
  • Not unless you're talking about wolves. Today's lesson: whoever bits harder prevails.
  • I did it to my son. He left teeth marks and cut the skin on his older brother. I bit his hand not hard but enough that he didn't like it. His face was stunned and has never bitten since. I think sometimes kids need to be shown what they are doing so they understand why they shouldn't.
  • omg no it is not acceptable to bite a child under any circumstances. if your child bites you, you express to them that you are upset that this has happened an explain that it is not acceptable. to bite back is only teaching your child tit for tat not discipline. also children look up to their parents and follow their example, especially the younger ones who love to copy mummy and daddy. biting your child back only teaches them that it must be ok to bite because mummy did it.
  • no way. if the child accidentally killed a snail by standing on it, would the mother kill one back?! ok maybe thats not the best example, but its along the same lines. i think its wrong, and that you should think about contacting social services.
  • NO THE WORST BITE IS A HUMAN BITE. I SUGGEST YOU BOTH SEE A DOCTOR, BEFORE YOU LOOSE A BODY PART.= SERIOUSLY.
  • I have twin boys and when they were around 4 or 5 year old, my son drake would bite his brother just to watch his reaction. I caught him doing it, he would always bite zach in the back, leaving bruises and teeth marks for days. I bit Drake hard enough (on this lower arm) that it hurt him without leaving a lasting mark on him, it didn't hurt him enough to make him cry though. I explain to him that he shouldn't do anything to his brother or anyone else, that he didn't want done to him, he never bit his brother again. A couple of years later, Zack started throwing the medium sized hollow plastic balls in his room at Drake, just to watch his nose bleed. I warned him that if he threw another ball and hit his brother in the face causing his nose to bleed again, i was going to throw a ball at him and see if he liked it. Well, it happened and I did exactly what I told him I would. He stopped doing it. I taught them to clean there room when I told them to by going in there (while they were sitting there) and telling them "every my hand touches is going in the trash if the two of you don't get up and start cleaning this room right now." neither of them moved, i started picked up toys and in the trash they went. They never got those toys back but from that point on, when i told them to clean their room, they got up and done it. My boys are 15 now and since that time, when I tell them to do something, they do it. I don't hear "ok in a minute" "AWWW MOM" and I damn sure don't hear "NO". They get up and do it right then unless they want the plug to their favorite game system get ripped out of the wall in mid game. You control your children, not the other way around. Their father has the same ideas of parenting and has zero tolerance for bad behavior. We were both brought up on strict homes, our kids don't hate us, we haven't taught them that our behavior is anymore acceptable than theirs. We've always treated them like small adults and to have respect for authority, within reason. There are way to many kids running around telling their parents what to do. Our kids are NOT part of that "i can do what ever the hell i want" group of children.
  • I've worked in a daycare center and we had kids who would bite or actually yank hair out of other children or day care workers. No matter how many times they got punished or just taken aside and counseled they would continue to do it. It is bully behavior. They don't care how you feel or what you feel because they like the power they feel when they do it. The only time it would ever stop was when they got a taste of their own medicine. Sometimes the parents would try everything and finally just bite them. And when they did, it was never hard enough to break the skin or leave any bruising. Just enough to startle the child. Which I always thought was better because eventually they would run into a child that would really bite them back hard because they weren't putting up with that nonsense. Better the mom who does it with love and care than the child who does it out of rage. And for those of you who think the child should just be lovenly disaplined let me tell you this. 1.)Classes are over crowded and teachers don't have that time to teach and play mommy and daddy the whole day and concentrate on one childs bad behavior every day. 2.) Day care centers make it a policy to not drop problem children after a long evaluation period. During this time a child may bite several children and now you have a few more children going about biting as well. We had on child who was like that. By the time they kicked him out he had already bit several children and 2 of them became a problem in the class after he left. 3.) Victims of these children start to show signs of stress and start to fear coming to school or day care because of the bully. Everyone is always worried more about the bully than the victims. Do you know how horrible it felt to tell a parent, yes, your child was bitten today and is terrified to come here because we cannot issue a private day care person to keep the bully child away from the other kids. Yes, we kept that child near us all day but your child came to close to us to talk to us and it resulted in that child biting him because he was close enough to bite. No stupid policies prevent us from kicking him out. He has to bite 3 times and we have to show we made an effort with him for at least 2 weeks before we can let him go. We are also prohibited from keeping the child seperate from class activities. So yes, that child has more rights than the good child. So I say do what works so long as it doesn't leave bruises or broken skin or cuts or torture. My son liked to slap people when he was a 18 months old. He didn't understand why I wanted him to stop. I would catch his hand and put it down and in seconds he would try again. I tried everything, I could think of. One day my mom said hit him back. He caught me by surprise and smacked me really hard. He hit me so hard he left his hand print on my face. I quickly pop his mouth. Not hard enough to hurt him but it startled him. He learned never to hit again. Children need to learn who is in control or they will try it their way.

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