Discipline.

I read an article today that criticized Kate Gosselin for (allegedly) spanking one of her kids. Give me a break. I'm not the biggest fan of Kate Gosselin...I think she's manipulative and snotty, but I think that she did the right thing by spanking her child (it was Hannah, I think.).
I was a nanny, worked in a daycare and have babysat enough children to figure out one thing-spanking works. Although I never spanked a kid, the ones that were spanked by their parents were one million times more well-behaved, articulate and polite than the children whose parents believed in "attachment parenting" or some other nonsense.
At one point, I was taking care of ten 17-24 month olds, and I could point out to you which of the children were spanked when they misbehaved...the ones who weren't were easy to spot, they were the ones laying in the floor screaming, biting or hitting the other kids, or throwing toys across the room.
"Attachment parenting" doesn't work. Reasoning with a screaming 2 year old doesn't work. Begging a 6-year-old monster to behave doesn't work. Bribing doesn't work. When I was a nanny, I worked in the wealthiest part of Birmingham...I can't even count the times I saw skinny, frantic, overly botoxed, top heavy (from their ahem, chest enhancements) women bending over a screeching child, begging them to stop throwing a tantrum. Really? What has society come to, that parents treat kids like their equals? There's no consequences for bad behavior anymore. That's why the world is in the shape it's in, because children are being raised to believe that they can do whatever they want and there won't be any consequences. It's scary, if you think about it.
Parents think they're doing their kids a favor by not punishing them, by not making them pay for bad behavior. It doesn't seem like a huge deal when they're two, but report back to me when they're fifteen, and let me know how that's going for you.

Hmmmph.