Spanking Debate: A Generational Divide

ABC ^ | July 6, 2010 | ANNA WILD

[Bad~Rodeo]

Laura and Todd Mansfield of Portland, Oregon, are against spanking, and have made a conscious decision as parents not to use it to discipline their two sons, 6-year-old Connor and 3-year-old Drew.

"I'm like, 'How can I do that to my child?'" Todd Mansfield told "Good Morning America." "It does hurt me more than maybe it hurts them, but beyond that, I just didn't want to do it. I knew there other ways."

The Mansfields, who host a radio program called Parenting Unplugged Radio said that after reading studies that show long-term negative effects of spanking, they started using alternative methods when the kids misbehave.

"I do think that spanking can be used as a form of abuse," Laura Mansfield said. "I do think that it can."

But Laura Mansfield's parents have a different view, and their opposing position came to a head when her parents on two occasions spanked Connor and Drew without their parents' knowledge.

The most recent case was when the boys spent a weekend at their grandparents and Drew was caught pulling up his grandmother's flowers in her garden, and both boys got spanked.

"She grabbed my 6-year-old, who at the time was holding a handful of bulbs, and spanked him," Laura Mansfield said. "She then proceeded to chase my 3-year-old and catch him and spank him as well.

The Mansfields were furious and confronted her parents.

"I think she was exhausted and desperate and didn't know what else to do," Laura Mansfield said.

Laura Mansfield's mother did not want to talk about the incident because she said it was out of character for her.

Laura Mansfield's father, Macy Wall, spanked her and her siblings growing up and said he doesn't see spanking as something detrimental.

"I guess

[1951Boomer]

I was consistently spanked the first five years of my life. I tried everyting there was to try—from digging out under the yard fence and escaping with my dog, to aiming for and hitting the neighbor girl in the head with a rock and laughing about it. I literally woke up at age five as an angel, my mom said. I had finally equated painful consequences with disobedience and misbehavior. I’m nearing 60, and I am eternally grateful to my parents for jerking their belts off or applying a switch to my obstinate little backside. I still tell my mom she’s the greatest mom on earth.

[Bad~Rodeo]

Belts, razor strap, even a hair brush once. But many of today’s children in grade school know that if mommie or daddy spanks them all they have to do is tell a teacher and they call CPS, what then?

[BrandtMichaels]

ping

[absolootezer0]

its never too late to start behavioral correction either..

[I Buried My Guns]

Russel, my brother, whom I slept with

One of the greatest comedy albums of all time. I had it on wax, years ago. It contains wisdom that will soon be lost.