How can this BE?!?

Question

Another rocket scientist just informed that spanking "is NOT hitting", "not violence" and that "every child needs a good one now & then."

Do you believe in equal rights for all? If so, please keep your hands off your children. This 'spare the rod' junk makes me want to toss my cookies everywhere.

How can hitting someone defenseless NOT be "hitting" or "violence"? Smack, spat, pat, I don't care. How dare anyone force a child to do something by instilling fear? You want to teach your young one not to cross the street without you? Then hold his hand and lock the back door.

Why are adults so stupid sometimes?

"Why are you asking this in religion?" - Because most people use the Bible as justification for committing heinous acts, and whacking a child is heinous.

No, Lex. Sorry. Nothing in my post inferred that I thought you were beating your children. Why is this the one weapon you have to defend yourself? I love TX, but I'll tell her too. Hitting your child is lazy. There is nothing loving about it. Whenever I ask this question I get the same old "Either you got beat too much or not enough" and every time it makes me feel physically ill. You speak as if those against hitting can only have been abused or spoiled themselves. There are ways to bring up one's children without spoiling or hitting. It's called time, compassion, education and love. Do not mistake love for violence. Children may become wonderful adults despite being hit but certainly never because.

No, I am not blind. Parents are hitting their children just as much now as before. They just admit to it less. Trust me, being so out of control you need to hit your child will only teach him to be out of control as well. "The jails are filled with children who were never spanked"? Please. Go read the studies. Go to a jail and ask. I doubt you'll find a single person who was never hit.

Answer 1

I agree with you 110%, if I ever had kids I would never hit them...my parents never spanked me. (Although those stupid nuns at that Catholic school did. *grumbles*)

I think its strange that people think hitting a child on one part of their body is not abusive. Yet if they were to hit them with the same amount of force else where on their body, they would consider it abusive. Huh? It's all wrong.

Something to consider too: Spanked children don't regard their bodies as being their own personal property. Spanking trains them to accept the idea that adults have absolute authority over their bodies, including the right to inflict pain. And being hit on the buttocks teaches them that even their sexual areas are subject to the will of adults. The child who submits to a spanking on Monday is not likely to say "No" to a molester on Tuesday. People who sexually molest or exploit children know this! They stalk potential victims among children who have been taught to "obey or else" because such children are the easiest targets.

Answer 2

We have a seven year old boy and he has never been spanked. He does very well in school, shows proper respect when appropriate...and acts like a kid acts.

Have I ever felt like spanking him. Absolutely. Most people hit (spank) their kids out of anger, a really bad time to be violent.

You teach your children how to behave by setting an example every day and correcting them when they are wrong. If the only way you can get your childs attention is to hit them, then I respectfully suggest that you need help with your parenting skills.

***In response to Midge..If I were a betting man, I would bet there are more people in jail that were spanked than those that were not. What a pathetic answer.

Answer 3

When I was a child, and I did something naughty, I used to be smacked, aversion therapy does work. If I roll the cat in cow dung then I will get a smack, it will hurt, so it is best not to roll the cat in cow dung. When my dog peed on the carpet he got a smack, and it soon sunk in that he wasn't allowed to pee on the carpet.

I am all for smacking, though it does need to be controlled. Some parents use discipline as an excuse for domestic violence. If your are hitting the kid hard enough to cause physical damage, brusing, even prolonged redness, then you are doing it wrong.

I know that I will probably get a heap of thumbs down for this answer, but isn't the point to be honest. I was smacked as a kid, and I turned out as a pretty decent adult, I am sure there are those who weren't smacked who are just as good. But different things work for different people.

I did once have my mouth washed out with soap for swearing one day. That didn't have any effect me.

Answer 4

I completely agree.

Spanking a child is what someone with no other tools resorts to out of frustration. It's really that simple.

Spanking does not teach respect. How can you respect someone who is intentionally hitting you? It merely teaches that might makes right and that violence is an acceptable method for getting your way. Definitely not lessons I want to teach my children.

Answer 5

Violence is the last resort of the intelligent,
and the first resort of the incompetant.

Why do you need a license to go fishing but they let anyone with working sex parts (and some with out) raise children?
To even raise kids in some places you need a livestock certificate and some proof you know something about goats. .

Answer 6

I am against all forms of corporal punishment. Spanking is hitting. Besides the fear factor, children learn by example. It says hitting is an OK way to get others to do what you want.

I'll bet they think it is OK to hit the dog too.

Answer 7

It is amazing that society is pushing toward the system of not spanking a child. look at what we are facing today that we were not facing 30-40 years ago. Lack of control in our schools. Students having more power than the teachers. Violent crimes being commited by younger people every year. High school drop outs in the inner city's at an all time high. Pregnacy rate for girls under 16 increase every year, Schools having to have weapon detectors yet the ones without the detectors are where the children are bringing the guns and knives to school and using them. I think a huge part of the problem is the fact that parents are afraid to discipline their children, afraid that they would be reported to social services. Discipline is gone from a lot of these childrens lives know because of the system. They think they can get away with anything. Just look at the average age of the young men and women going to prison. If mom and dad did their jobs earlier in that person's life I am willing to bet that a large percentage of ppl behind bars now would not be there. So as an adult, instead of us being spanked by our parents we are thrown in JAIL for doing wrong where as if that person as a child expierienced a grandmother that made you go outside and pick your own switches to get a spanking with or a mom and dad that didn't mind using a belt after they told you not to do something and you went behind their back. Are you to blind to see what is happening? Prayer gone from our schools, children able to get a divorce from their parents and the list goes on.

Answer 8

I'll never understand it. I was never spanked, and somehow I never got run over either. Hitting is hitting, and striking a child is just flat-out wrong. Where does one draw the line between correction and abuse?

Answer 9

Negative reinforcement is an effective way to modify behavior overall... Sure it may cause psychological problems, but it gets the job done... *cough*

Really, you're absolutely right, and this is one of many traditions that I hope will die out soon like many others have in the past, it at least seems to be heading that way.

Answer 10

I was spanked as a child, hit harder as I grew, only went to the emergency room once--I survived