You got that right. I think one swift slap to the face should suffice.

Next year give him a dull knife, a little piece of leather and some rubber bands. When he ask you what it is, tell him "That Son, is your new favorite toy." Then proceed to send him out in the woods by himself.

I'd shoot him down with his own nerf gun.

Seriously, he is. I would grab his stuff and took them to the neighbor's kids' house! Then proceed to make him watch them have fun with his presents.

Im glad I my parents give me one present for my birthday. Wow.

I'm 17 and I buy my own presents...I envy this kid..

Op take away his stuff like others have said, but heres the twist make him set up a lemonade stand or something and make him pay you for them or whatever toy he wants. Make him learn the value of a dollar he is 8 that's old enough to do it.

He needs a spanking.

When I was like 5 I was whining and said something to the effect of "I don't have anything! " To my parents. They then calmly proceeded to take everything out of my room including furniture (I didn't know where they put it. I found out later it was the garage). I sat there on the bare carpet in my empty room and my parents said, very calmly, "There. Now you have nothing". The next morning I apologized and got my stuff back. Other parents continue to cower at the legend of my parents' parenting awesomeness

115 - That definitely taught you a lesson. More parents need to teach their kids to value their belongings. My mom just always cooks a special dinner for my birthday; no presents. Some kids are just so spoiled.

I'm 16 and I'd still be happy to get a nerf gun. Maybe not overjoyed, but I'd definitely get some fun out of it

I agree spanking can be effective. I am not one of those "omg your abusing your kids" kind of people as I got hit when I was younger. BUT I can think of some pretty creative ways that would be better to teach kids a lesson than to hit then. Similar to the one poster whos parents took everything from his room. Gives you something to do on a slow day also :)

bring him to a charitable org and tell him to donate his gifts to needy children. don't give him anything else.

You want to see abuse? Look up, shaken babies. That's abuse. Hitting your child for doing something disrespectful and wrong is not abuse. My parents hit me and spanked me, but they definitely did not abuse me.

My parents disciplined me by hitting and smacking me whenever I did something wrong. If they did it for no reason then it would be considered abuse.

Goddamn... I'm surprised he got anything.. For my birthday, all I got was a book. Not that I mind, anyways. I love reading.

217 abusers often say they hit they hit there child for doing something "wrong" now question is there wrong and my wrong might be a little different

Last birthday I got three books... And I couldn't have been more grateful cause I know they can't buy that much and they make me happy :)

188, agreed. Spanking is a way to scare someone into being good, but if you can actually teach someone a lesson, it's much better in the long run. Spanking isn't 100% effective. Everyone's gets way too sensitive about "abuse" and it only makes actual abuse seem less serious. For example I think a mom got arrested once (or something) for pouring water on her teenage daughter that wouldn't get out of bed.

"An attitude adjustment and a lesson in humility."

Who has fun playing with shoes and a backpack?

I did that too: I complained I was being treated like a slave because I had quite a few chores as a kid. My father looked at me calmly and asked if I wanted him to treat me like a slave for the day. I chickened out.

I'll probably be thumbed down for it but what the heck? I live on the wild side. Even at such a young age children have a right not to be hit. If you saw someone doing something mildly unlawful, for example, you wouldn't go up and punch them in the face. Usually that results in an assault charge. Obviously most parents aren't punching their children in the face, but the same thing kind of applies. Children have a right to their bodies and to not be hit as punishment. That being said I think it's a freaking load that a simple spanking or slap occasionally should qualify as abuse and result in the child being removed from the home. At the end of the day there are more effective ways for parenting than hitting.

Sometimes spanking is the only solution. My niece purposely pees her pants, and I mean she seriously will just pee on herself. She is potty trained but she doesn't want to stop what she's doing to pee on the toilet. One time I caught her running to her room, when I got there she had her pants and panties off and they were soaked with pee and she was squatting over them reaching for a new skirt. Her momma beat her ass. Because a simple don't pee on yourself seriously won't phase her, trust me we have tried, ever since she learned to pee on a toilet she would do good most the day and have an accident in bed, and then she would go all day good but then she'd just decide she was too busy and pee wherever she was. So spanking became the solution and it worked for a long time. Now she doesn't care because nobody will spank her so she knows there's no consequences.

At my age, my present is the cake itself, and it's been like that since I was teen

It can take up to a year for some kids to be fully potty trained. That being said, I don't know if that year leeway applied to your niece. However, my sister experienced the same problem with her child for YEARS, and would chaste her and yell at her. Spanking did not work on her either. Kids respond better to positive reinforcement. I looked up methods for helping a child overcome wetting herself and found a really cool solution. Make a chart and mark the days that she doesn't wet her pants and when she goes for a solid week you buy her a reward. There will be slip ups and sometimes they regress, but it worked wonders for my niece. And "beating her ass" does sound like abuse. I'm sorry, but the parent is the adult in the situation, and when you hit your kids its you losing control of your temper. Parents are people too, they shouldn't be expected to perfect. I've spanked my daughter; I'm by no means saying it doesn't happen. I didn't try to justify it though - that was me losing my temper and it wasn't right.

Sadly this little girl has been potty trained for at least two years. It's just that she will literally pee on herself and where she sits and you say "why did you pee on yourself?" She says, "because I wanted to" immediately covers her butt and yells that she doesn't want to be spanked, she knows what is deserved but no one will do anything. I would but she's not my child. My child would have broken that habit by then.

I agree. OP I think the best way for discipline is this: (it's what happened to me): Take away all his toys. All of them. Every single one, even the ones he didn't get for his b-day. And hide them or put them in a place he can't reach. Give him nothing to "play" with but books. When he asks for toys, just say "I'm sorry. I didn't get any for you, remember?" And make him work for them back. i.e. Three loaded dishwashers equals one fire-truck.

I don't think hitting a child is appropriate because that could mean anything from a slap on the wrist to actually punching them. Spanking isn't abuse because it is a form of discipline and is usually very effective.

Maybe take away all those gifts and see how he likes getting nothing instead.

^Agreed. It'll teach him gratitude early on in life. Or, he'll throw a tantrum.

Well, kids learn through their parents how to be grateful, so if the kid is a brat is most likely the parents fault. I hate to make assumptions but I've seen this happen in my own family... The kid gets zero discipline and then the parents wonder why the kid is such a punk. Rant over.

84-that's EXACTLY how my parents are with my little brother. He's about to be 17. He gets everything he wants, Xbox, ridiculously expensive points for that game, has a satellite receiver, in his room, his own computer. Also an iPhone 4, I had to get my own with my fiancé. He got it immediately after they came out. He treats our parents like complete shit. And yet they will not punish him. They take his cords but let him keep the tv. If they'd take the phone and tv he'd have nothing. The computer and Xbox use the tv. And they wonder why he is such a little shit. Op's kid sounds like my brother did at the same age. There's no way in hell I'm letting my son, due next month, act like that. Nor will any of the other kids I plan to have. They will be treated like I was.

Omg me too. My brother gets everything he wants and I had to earn it and pay with my own money. Oh and congrats on your child

Not all kids...

Being the youngest, everyone assumes that I am the spoiled child. I'm not, thanks to my parents. My parents managed to raise me and my siblings equally. I don't have a ton of stuff. I have all I need, a crappy phone. I pay for the sports I play and I'm glad.

I can definitely relate to that jesustitts. My sister is almost 21 and my parents are starting to wonder why she doesn't want to move out of home...but it's because they give her everything! A new phone, a new Xbox, a new pet bird (one of those expensive ones worth over $100), they paid for half of her car, AND they let her have unlimited access to the internet and the phone. And when she racks up hundreds of dollars in phone bills, they pay for it! It's ******* ridiculous! It frustrates me to no end because not only did I never get these types of things from my parents, but they can't see that they are only making it worse. "Oh well, at least she isn't out drinking or getting high" they say, as if that's supposed to be some sort of consolation! And they're always complaining about how they struggle with bills and have occassionally even asked to borrow money off me. Then when I say I can't give them any more money, they treat me like I'M the problem child. They call ME ungrateful and selfish...even though my sister is the reason they're so broke in the first place. Grrrr...it's making me angry just thinking about it! >:(

That's a very general statement,2, that's like saying "Blacks these days, or Jews these days"

To all the people posting long ass replys, chill the **** out. It's FML not a counseling session.

I'm seventeen and I Still only get one gift on my birthdays. I'm damn grateful for it too. What a snot nosed brat.

127 - You haven't been here long, have you...

Agreed!

127 - Don't read them.

92-my dad gave me a 90 ford ranger, only after I got myself a job and started paying my own gas and insurance. I have tried to get my brother to get a job but with the way my parents are he probably won't for a long time. They want him to get a job and start using the car but what they need to do is take the little bastards electronics away and refuse to give him anything until he gets a job and then he can be a productive child like my brothers and sister had to be.

Crap :/ replied to the wrong comment. Thumbs down if you want. I did.

@127. are you reading a challenged? the longest stuff is only a couple of paragraphs. go to twitter if you can't deal with so much reading.

Doesn't sound spoilt to me. He sounds disappointed. Maybe OP is poor and couldn't afford better gifts, but the kid is probably comparing his birthday presents to his friends who would actually get good stuff. He's 8. That sorta thing matters to him. He's not going to understand why his parents didnt get him what he actually wanted.

245-It's spoiled. Also, poor, seriously? She got him a nerf gun that was almost 60 bucks, extra bullets, says another 10-30, who knows how many she got, a backpack with favorite cartoon character, maybe 20 bucks, new shoes, maybe 20 bucks, and an action figure. Is that really your definition of poor?? If I got all that at 8 years old from my parents and on my birthday I would be ecstatic!! All that stuff is more than enough for an 8 year old! You must be a spoiled little brat yourself.

Actually spoilt is the adjective form, spoiled is the past participle. At least in the UK thats how it's used. And I guess we have different ideas of what poor is. I would have been disappointed with that on my birthday. I'm not spoilt, and I'm certainly not a brat, I'm just lucky enough to have parents who can afford to buy me what I actually want on my birthday!

So spoiled, you are spoiled. I was lucky to get a birthday cake and some spending money on my birthday, and you better believe I was one of the most excited little kids right then and there! If I got that now at age 19, turning 20 in April I would be so happy and grateful because I know my parents were being thoughtful. This is the problem with kids these days, 8-12 years old and they expect their moms and dads to poop them an iPhone. Or a horse. Way too spoiled. My four year old niece got 70 dollars worth of LaLa loopsy dolls for her birthday. She was the most excited little kid in the entire world. That was just from her mom and dad! I didn't even get that kinda stuff when I was 4! I was happy to get Barbie clothes for my billions of Barbies!!

Who is raising them? They aren't born with the instinct to want electronics and designer clothes. That only comes with intensive training.

You sound like a spoiled bitch Chimocho.

I was lucky enough to grow up in a well off enough home, but never took it for granted. What I got was what I got and I made sure to tell my mom and dad I loved them for being such great parents. Honestly, looking back on my childhood, my parents were always the real present. Now at 19 my mom keeps asking me what I want for Christmas and because I'm not spoiled, I have no clue what I want because I am so content with everything I already have.

Or it could be that he didn't ask for any of that and she just went out and chose gifts for him.

38... that's still ungrateful. He's lucky he got anything if that's how his attitude has been all year.

38: Oh god yeah, that would completely justify being ungrateful and rude. I mean, how dare his parents spend their hard-earned money buying him things most 8 year old kids would have a fit over? Selfish *******, parents these days, eh? Clearly they should have bought him a PS3 and an iPhone.

Your adoptive mother, you're the adopted one.

Lol

VERY ungrateful. Nerf guns are awesome!

Clothes and school supplies don't count as presents to a little boy ha-ha.

Shoot him with the nerd gun

methinks someone wants a new video game console

What a little spoiled, snotty, little prick. Teach that little **** to be grateful and thankful and to not take life for granted. I don't think I will ever have kids. I would not be able to stand the rotten behavior portrayed by such little weasels.

149 - Kids learn from their parents' example. Those "little weasels" who act that way only do so because their parents spoil them rotten. If more parents would man up and discipline their children, and say "no" once in a while, it would go a long way towards making them grow into better adults. And yes, I am a father, and I make damned sure my kids appreciate what they have.

162-at least there are still other parents out there who know how to raise children. My parents did a great job but started slacking on their last and let him do and get anything he wants to.

LOL #49 how many times can we say "little" in one paragraph?

I'm 19 and would still love those gifts. Wish I had that when I was younger.

204-I agree, but replace the nerf with air soft. Those are fun.. They hurt but more fun :p

207, I wouldn't recommend giving any kid under the age of 12 an air soft gun.. I know you were probably speaking out of personal preference, but this thread was talking about being great full at a young age and a whiney undeserving 8 year old.

224-I agree. I can hardly trust my nephew with a toy hammer, and he's five. I can't imagine what he'd do with a toy gun, I wouldn't give my kid an air soft gun until he was at least 12 or 13 because by then they learn not to be completely stupid, my brother and his sadly recently deceased best friend were like 10 and shot out the windows of my ltd, the back and front windshields, the side windows( the small ones) and the normal windows. With a BB gun, because for some reason they were given BB guns. I wanted to kill them.

And I am not a guy or 8 years old

To an 8 year old? How nice...0.0

"Wee shite." That is fantastic.

Stop being a prude, kid is bold enough to say that type of stuff i wouldn't be worried about talking about adoption papers

"Prude. " That word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

For a second, I thought 71 said 'prune'. Heh. That would be more interesting to read.

Kids care about nerf guns these days about as much as a card with no money in it. It's all about the iPad now to them. When I was a kid though, I woulda pooped myself out of joy for a $55 nerf gun!

Agreed! AND extra bullets with it as well, I think I would've gone into some sort of nerf-based-excitement induced coma xD

#14 - My 10-year old sister absolutely loves nerf guns. She's got her own weaponry in her bedroom, almost. Lol. I'm so glad we were raised to enjoy the simple things. :P

That is actually the best idea i have heard! Donate the gifts! That way the kid will learn his lesson and be more grateful the next go around

Not only donate the gifts, but instead of presents on Christmas, have him volunteer at a shelter. I mean, by definition I was "spoiled" as a child by my grandpa (go figure, right? Ha-ha), but I have never been ungrateful for anything I have ever received. I just don't get kids these days...

Unless they're autistic or some shit like that, 8 year olds most definately do not deserve it. I say a tablet in middle school and watch how they act with that, if they act good maybe a cell in high school.

I would have pooped myself NOW if I got a nerf gun. Kids these days...

My comment was to 14 about the ipad. I'll clarify next time.

lilhellian- I don't think you know much about raising kids.

Nerf guns are simple? I remember being happy with a stick and being a wizard!

I'd switch the order. Cell then tablet, a cell is actually useful for a middle schooler while a tablet isn't.

Hahaha if only more mothers were like you!

Oh, he's a bastard? He was probably just upset then because he doesn't care about material things, and all he really wants is a dad...

79 - You realise as It said 'we watched' right? Okay maybe it wasn't his father, but to me it sounded like both his parents were present there

#83 - You realize it was in reference to "bastard"?

134- Last I checked, a bastard was a person born to unmarried parents.

142 - I know. However, a lot of bastard children don't have their dad around. I think this is what 79 was hinting.

Save it for the YMCA jamima