> I do think it’s inconsistent that you’d never hit your pet but you’d give your child...(what was it you said?)...a “damn good spanking” for hitting an animal.
How is that inconsistent? I don’t hit animals and I require that my children don’t hit animals — perfect consistency.
And if my children do hit animals, they may receive physical punishment — a form of discipline which people understand and respond to, but which animals do not.
Surely you aren’t suggesting I should treat my children the same as my animals, for the sake of “consistency”? My children would not enjoy sleeping outside and eating one meal of dogfood per day and drinking clean cold water out of a bowl.
> I wouldn’t strike either, personally
As a pet owner and parent, that of course is your choice. I’m glad you don’t strike your pets, and if you are able to raise your kids without physical discipline, more power to ya.
> and I think it’s odd that you appear to show more restraint for your animal than your child.
Disciplining your children is not a loss of “restraint”. Quite the contrary. It is an orderly re-establishment of the rule of Law: something that always requires restraint.
Recall that I said there was a difference between “spanking” and “hitting”. Spanking as a punishment is never done in anger but always under complete self-control.
Hitting isn’t. I would never “hit” my children.
> “A damn good spanking...” you say? Maybe I misunderstood. A lot of times people use really outrageous terminology to describe how they correct their children.
A “dam’n good spanking” involves between six or twelve of the best, with an open hand across the backside, with an explanation before and after about what was happening and why.
It only works up to a certain age, and then other disciplinary measures work much better. But of course you know all this.
> Fortunately for me, I trained them when they were young and whippings have never been necessary.
“whippings” are never necessary. I don’t believe we need weapons (whips, belts, canes &tc) to discipline our kids, ever. If we do, then we as parents are doing it wrong.
Well...at least your pets are safe from that kind of treatment.
What’s the difference between your hand and any other tool? Do you really think the child (or animal) cares what they are getting hit with?