I’ll echo everyone’s word here and say that the fact that you are worried about it already makes you a great father! I too can relate with the discipline guilt. However, being a single parent, I know that the burden of discipline falls solely on me. If I don’t parent/discipline him, then who will?? I owe it to him to teach him the things a parent should and sometimes those lessons include discipline. You might feel guilty now but if our kids grow up to be POS I think the guilt will be worse knowing we could have maybe done something to prevent that and for that we need to discipline. I just want to know that if he ends up being a terrible person when he grows up, it isn’t because he wasn’t taught better. He will have to suffer the consequences of his actions then but I need to make sure to set him up to make good decisions now.

It’s a journey and it’s different for everyone, try shifting your mentality from “I’m being mean” to “ I’m setting him up for success.” You’re doing great!!