Discipline is one of the most popular sections of the successful Irish parenting website, Rollercoaster.ie. Of the 13,000 visitors per month that the site has logged, many go straight to the section on discipline.

Rollercoaster is responding to this interest at present with a discipline survey which will run until the end of December.

Questions asked in the survey include:

Do you slap your child?

In general, do you think slapping works?

Does discipline cause strife between you and your partner?

Are you happy with how you manage your child's behaviour?

Responses so far have been interesting, according to Anne O Connor, child psychologist and co-founder of the website:

"More than 65 per cent of respondents say they use slapping but up to half of these say it doesn't work.

"A lot of people also report that discipline causes strife between themselves and their partners.

"Once we have the survey completed, we hope to get to the core of the thinking on this subject and develop the discipline section more on the site."

If parents fill out the survey honestly we'll have a truer picture of how Irish parents really discipline their children - not how they would like to think they do, she says.

Some of the advice on discipline offered on the site by Anne and social worker/ psychotherapist John Sharry is excellent. Gems to keep in mind include: catching your child being good; saying positively what you want from your child rather than negatively what you don't want (rather than saying don't run in the shop, say please keep by my side when we are in the shop); and ignoring misbehaviour.

The old reliables - be consistent, criticise the action not the child, follow through on your threats (and yes, be kind to yourself as a parent) - are also there.

Rollercoaster.ie is a powerhouse of useful and practical information on all aspects of parenting from pregnancy through to family motoring.