Nominee's son bites his mom--at the White House

shoulda tasered the little prick.
The way they had the kid dressed , he looked like a Buster Brown shoe label.
whooa , did I say that out loud or was I just thinking that

Maybe tasering is a little excessive, but his behavior indicates that little Jack is in control--not the parents.

Of course, these older than average parents married later in life, were unable to have kids of their own (the old "biological clock" dilemma), and finally adopted two "adorable" little ones. Accordingly, they're probably so happy and thankful to have kids they're spoiling them rotten and forgetting about discipline.

A kid who bites his mother at his father's nomination ceremony at the White House obviously knows no bounds. Even if he is only four, he should know that biting is UNACCEPTABLE (as Nanny Jo Jo would say!)

Farmerman: You don't like this kid's short pants and saddle shoes?

When I first read the title I thought many young children go through a biting stage...The I read his age - 4. By four years old he should be old enough to have stopped this. I had the problem with my 2 year old doing this (around the time she first turned 2). She is almost 3 - she knows not to do this. We were able to teach her at 2 to stop.

Interesting that in both pics, sis looks a little scared. Maybe Jack gets out of hand a little more often than just on confirmation days.

With both parents working, I wouldn't be surprised if they have a nanny. Nanny probably has control, but Jack likely knows things are "different" with Mom and Dad.

I say "What the heck. Let him dance."

Kids know when they can get away with stuff.

National television... what's mom gonna do? Put him in time out and have him scream over the President? This is one of those lose-lose situations. If you punish the kid, then people criticize you; if you don't punish the kid, then people criticize you.

We get dirty looks in restaurants when we hold Ya-ya's face and talk to her. I can't imagine the amount of bad press one could get from yanking a child up on TV.

I think you could take any normal four year old, put them in uncomfortable clothes in an unfamiliar situation, while having an entire press corp pay attention to them and you're going to see something very similar.

My ex-neighbor has told me that since they moved her 3.5 year old has begun biting. "Stress" says the doctor, "give it time".

I wouldn't judge these parents parenting skills too harshly.

DD hit the nail on the head: Had mom taken junior aside and sternly scolded him for his behavior, Debra would be posting about how mom couldn't control her son and had to scold him on national television. He's a 4 year old! It's pretty pathetic to be critical of him and his behavior, or mom and dad based on his behavior. But I guess if you can't be critical of the dad, be critical of the son.

Imagine if she had just swatted him a good one right there on national TV? Now THAT would send the right message about family values.

I guess your right. Unless you know that this is a constant problem, you cannot make a judgement on one incident.

My daughters are typically well behaved whenever we are out, however, they are still just children and have on rare occassions acted up when we went out.

I typically do discipline them in an appropriate way even though we are out. I will pull them aside and speak sternly with them and in one case when I had (fortunately the only one in public) a full fledged tantrum taken her directly out of the store and into the car.

I have had one instant where some one opened their damn mouth and said I should lighten up. Can't remember the specifics, but it wasn't like I was hitting her - just speaking sternly. So I cannot imagine being on national television and having it happen.

I would never tell anyone how to discipline their kid, even if they were whipping the kid with a leather belt in front of me.

In fact, if I saw that happening, I'd pull up a chair and cheer.

Kids. Gotta love 'em. Especially when they're getting a good beating.

Well, I'll make sure if I am beating my child - I like you know first.

I especially have to watch out for my 2 year old. She is so sensitive to any sort of discipline. I tap her on the bottom - how the h*ll can she even feel it as she has a diaper on and she screams bloody murder - you hit me mommy!!! Half the time it is a simple love tap. Forget about yelling at her - she then screams - your mad at me mommy!!

The other monster ignores whatever you say and if you (not that I have tried this yet), but I imagine if I were to beat her - she would probably laugh. On the rare occassion that I have swatted her bottom - she says - Ha that didn't even hurt!

Meltdowns, tantrums, etc. are the inevitable result of having a child.

So are the dirty looks by little old ladies. I'm a monster, I tell you, because I made my baby cry!

Yeah - I had one of those yell shut up to my 2 year old once.

Then I bitch slapped her. That shut her up for good.

ROFL

This isn't a political forum; it's a parenting forum.

And, if you paid attention to my other posts on "parenting," you would see that I'm an enormous fan of SUPERNANNY, Jo Frost.

It doesn't matter if a parent is a nominee for the Supreme Court bench or the average Joe taking his kid out to eat at McDonalds--no parent (regardless of their station in life) is immune from having to deal with parenting issues. Biting is UNACCEPTABLE behavior no matter where it occurs--but the fact that this particular child bit his mom on national television during the President's nomination speech simply focuses the spotlight on parental control issues.

Loving one's children and effective parenting includes establishing proper discipline and parental control at an early age so that parents may take their children out in public with confidence (without worrying that their children will exhibit out of control behavior). If children are uncontrollable, it's time to call SUPERNANNY. I admire her techniques.

It's ridiculous that you desire to turn my admiration for Nanny Jo Jo into a political bashing.

I agree with you for the most part Debra, but even the most well behaved child sometimes has a tantrum. I also agree that biting is unacceptable. Maybe the boy was extremely tired or maybe he was hot and uncomfortable or maybe he is normally uncontrollable.

I have seen the most behaved children become monsters when either of the above has happened. Unfortunately for this family, they were in a situation where the mom couldn't simply remove the child from the situation which I would imagine the nanny would recommend.

A guess the thing is as we haven't really since this family before and seen the behavior of the children, it is difficult to conclude from one isolated incident that the child needs the nanny.

Curious if you have children? Even if you are around children alot, you may not realize this until you are a parent.

Taming your tyrant
Taming your Tyrant

This article describes the steps necessary to properly discipline your child by enforcing your expectations for good behavior and to help your child to learn to control his/her own behavior. And finally, consistency is the key.

I know both of the Roberts children were adopted. The four-year-old could be a Special Needs adoption. Neither dancing nor biting are typical behavior of a 4-year-old in an unfamiliar situation.

Consider that quite possibly someone convinced the parents that both kids should attend what is typically an adults-only setting.

I cut kids a lot of slack in public--kids next door and celebrity kids. I'm sure the episode has been added to the Robert's Family Memory Book.

Yes. I'm a parent with 22 years of parenting experience under my belt. I'm also an aunt and a god-mother. Every child has his/her own unique personality--and some children are far more strong-willed than others and will try to wear down their parents and test their boundaries in order to be the one in control--but consistency is the key.

Throughout my adult years, I've observed many children who are basically behavioral monsters and their parents have absolutely no idea how to discipline and correct unacceptable behavior and resort to ineffective pleading and bribery. You don't beg your child to behave. Appropriate behavior is something you teach your child. Otherwise, the child is in control--not the parent--and you just KNOW when that same child reaches puberty that even bigger out-of-control issues will emerge.

One child might need to be placed on the naughty spot just once or twice before he learns the difference between acceptable and unacceptable behavior and learns to control himself--whereas another child might have to be placed on the naughty spot 20 times or more before he/she finally sits there and realizes that unacceptable behavior won't be tolerated.

If a four-year-old turns and bites his mother when she tries to correct his behavior--this is a strong indication that the four-year-old is in control of the household and has not been taught that such conduct will not be tolerated.

IT's TIME TO CALL SUPERNANNY! LOL