How should you discipline your children?

I am not expecting to have children anytime soon, but I have thought about how I will discipline my children in the future. Coming from an Asian family, we were always discipline by this "thorn-like, bush" whip and it was very efficient. I, however; also grew up immersed in American culture so I know and have witnessed many of the tactics that American families have used to discipline their children. To be completely honest, I do not believe that there is one fool-proof way to discipline children. Each child is different and will respond differently to each disciplinary tactic or method.

I have said this before in my application for medical school, "communication is key. Good communication could be the solution to any problem while bad communication could be the source of all your problems." Communication is an invaluable skill that a physician must utilize in order for their patients to feel comfortable, relaxed, and to get the patients to trust and open up to them. Communication is also an invaluable skill that parents can use when disciplining their children. 

Talk to your children. Be patient and try to help your children understand why what they did was wrong and why they should not do it again. I feel that a lot of parents resort to other, more extreme measures/tactics of discipline or punishment is because they themselves are impatient. I'm not saying that other methods such as grounding someone or spanking are inefficient; I'm simply saying that you should be patient, take the time to help your children understand why their actions were wrong or why you need to punish them, and never resort to public shaming because that carries a whole host of negative consequences that could end up being chronic or severe.