[MIT-Elephant]

I don’t think smacking or spanking should be “losing your cool and hitting out,” but I think a consistent system of corporal punishment ain’t a bad thing. Kids need to know where the lines are and that there are consequences, and if a smack on the ear or rear does it then so be it.

[E Rocc]

One Christmas, I got my brother and his daughter’s mom matching wooden spoons (that’s what our mom used). I constantly see kids in stores who are dire need of posteriorally administered attitude adjustment.

[qam1]

Xer Ping

Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.

Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.

[Xenalyte]

Smacking is never acceptable. Close your damn mouth when you’re chewing.

Spanking, on the other hand, is just about always acceptable.

[HamiltonJay]

A decade ago, he might have been worried that I'd call social services - or at least recommend an anger management course.

A decade ago he was a bloody fool fresh out of the PC indoctrination centers called College.. now he's got 10 more years of real life and parenthood under his belt and knows that busy body mush minds like yourself are idiots.

[cyclotic]

The judicious use of pain is a very proper way of raising and training children. A child understands a whack on the behind and the fear of the rod more than they understand a “time out.”

[Douggles]

I’m for this. A friend of mine has a great t-shirt (that pisses off libs) that reads:

BEAT YOUR KIDS
BEAT YOUR KIDS
BEAT YOUR KIDS

[Southerngl]

I spanked my daughter for running into the road. A neighbor said “do you want her to fear you”, meaning that I was making myself a monster to her. I answered yes, I wanted to fear the hell out of me. I can show I’m not a monster later when the punishment/lesson is over.

[badpacifist]

Butt smacking is one thing. No problem with that. Face smacking is a another level and should not be allowed.

[ichabod1]

One, a 37-year-old marketing director, said: "It was three years ago when my daughter was two and I have never, ever forgotten it. "We were with my husband's family and we'd had a taxing day on the beach. My daughter was hot and sandy and exhausted and so was I. I was trying to change her nappy and she just would not stop wriggling. Suddenly I lashed out and whacked her on the leg. She was stunned and just froze. She stared at me and all I could see was that she had been humiliated and betrayed. I felt sick and then cuddled her and said sorry. I'm ashamed to admit that I said: 'Please don't tell Daddy'."

Gimme a break.

[twigs]

If this mother wouldn’t give her child a smack because she ran out into a busy road, then she’s not much of a mother. She loves her ideals more than she loves her child. Actions speak louder than words.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

“A clip around the ear” is never acceptable — too much risk of hearing damage. Stick to spanking.

[dead]

[EBH]

The flaw in this argument is that parents are lashing out in anger at their children. The whole children punishment agenda has put many parents in the position of stifling discipline. This leads them to ‘lash out,’ when they just can’t take it anymore.

Reasonable discipline, including minor corporal punishment, should be part of a parenting style. I work around children in a very liberal environment and some of these kids or the very worst. Some of them really do need a humiliating smack on the behind. There is nothing wrong with them learning about humble pie.

As far as people remembering getting punished...good. The question is did you repeat the bad behavior the next time?

[ClearCase_guy]

"Children can't defend themselves verbally or physically," she says.

Lady, we're not trying to set up some sort of "fair fight". We're trying to give appropriate punishment so that our kids grow up right.

[wbill]

I think that a spanking is something that generally only needs to be administered once. Just knowing that you'll do it is enough deterrent.

Heck, I still won't try my father, and I'm 30 years younger and quite a bit bigger than him. :-)

Of course, it's been a few years since he's given me an attitude adjustment via my rear end.

[Just another Joe]

When my daughter was 17 years old she was sitting at the kitchen table with my wife eating a sandwich.
I happened to be walking by when she said something insulting to her mother.
I grabbed her by the hair at the nape of her neck, tilted her head back until she was looking directly into my eyes as I hovered over her, and told her that if she didn't apologise and promise me to never talk to her mother that way again she was going to be picking her teeth up off the floor along with picking herself up off the floor.

The shocked look in her eyes was matched by the ashamed look that came over her in the next couple of seconds.

She apologised to her mother, told me she was sorry, and nothing more was ever said about the situation.

Would I have done it? You bet I would have.
My children were raised to respect their elders, ESPECIALLY family elders, until they were given a GOOD reason to NOT respect them - I would have knocked her block off, and she knew it.

[HamiltonJay]

Another, a 40-year-old novelist, told me: "One afternoon after school I held on to my 10-year-old and just shook him. I felt very stressed about work and my relationship, and he had broken an expensive toy. I felt terrible afterwards, apologised and promised to myself never to do it again. I think it's really bad parenting to hit children."

For this idiot who lashed out in anger at her child over issues in her own life, yea, she shouldn't hit her kids because she has no self control! What blows my mind is that these immature bafoons think that because they are children in adult bodies, that everyone is, and that because they could not control themselves that everyone else who has ever laid a hand on their child has done so in anger.

I have struck my child on many different occassions, never in anger, and always with the child knowing full well why he was getting it. I have never shook my child because or spanked my child for breaking a toy, or takin out work frustrations on him physically... This woman needs therapy and away, and should not be telling the rest of us that because she can't control her temper, that the rest of us are being irresponsible when we discipline our children out of love and respect.

Other than a quick flick to the back of the head delivered at the moment of certain infractions (generally mouthing off) which are far more shock than any physical pain, have I ever disciplined my child physically where it did not tear my heart out to do it. However I did it, made sure they understood why they were getting it, and made sure they understood that I took absolutely no joy in doing it, but if I allowed them to behave in the ways that got them this punishment without disciplining them for it, I would be neglectful in my responsibilities as their parent.

I always thought my parents were hypocritical liars when they would say "this is going to hurt me more than it does you" before I got what was almost always a well deserved licking. The first time I had to spank my child, for a well deserved and known infraction, I came to realise they were telling the God's honest truth.

I do not condone random and unwarranted violence against children, I do not condone physical punishment delivered in anger.. in fact, one of the greatest lessons the child is taught in times when capital punishment is going to be laid down, is the time they must spend in their room thinking about what they have done, and waiting for the fate they know is coming. This ensures that I or my wife have calmed down completely before punishment occurs and as the saying goes the waiting/anticipation of the punishment generally far effective than the simple punishment itself.

In the past a child would be sent out to get the switch that their butt would meet... this time served the same purpose, reflection of the child on what they had done wrong, and time for the parent to calm down from whatever anger the infraction may have brought.

[mngran2]

If you have to hit your kid to make him mind, you’re a bad parent. It only means that you haven’t invested the time and love over the years to earn his respect and get him to stop when you say stop. Once you’ve reached that point, you may have no alternative but to use corporal punishment to change the situation, but it still means you screwed up in getting to that point to begin with. That’s been my experience, and, yes, I did have to spank my kids a couple times. But I think it was my fault for letting things get out of hand that I had no other choice. I should have done better.

[FixitGuy]

From Dr. Spock many years ago on Johnny Carson's show:

"I have met my grandchildren, and they aren't fit to live with!"

Sparing the rod really DOES spoil the child.

I have one to offer as evidence!