The idea of punishment implies repaying someone with what he or she deserves when they do not act favorably. Discipline, on the other hand, is future-focused, always geared towards future acts.

When infusing this into the ethics of parenting, it has to be done carefully, even though children tend to be a bit mischievous. If the emotion of a parent gets in the way of correction, they may inevitably mix up the purpose of the correction and tilt towards retribution rather than redemption. With effective discipline a child can learn self-control, confidence, and responsibility. Punishment may be physical e.g spanking, hitting, or causing pain. However, punishment focuses on past actions of a child and offers little or nothing to help a child behave better in the future.

Discipline has to be carried out with utmost care  to ensure that child is well developed emotionally and physically.

Here are some major differences between punishment and discipline:

This is not to say that children do not deserve to be punished, even the bible says clearly “spare the rod and spoil the child”. A healthy balance needs to be struck as said before.