Sale of spanking tool points up larger issue [BARF ALERT]

The Boston Globe ^ | Monday, January 10, 2005 | Patricia Wen, Globe Staff

[Momaw Nadon]

ARLINGTON -- On a spring day, Susan Lawrence was flipping through a magazine, Home School Digest, when she came across an advertisement that took her breath away. In it, ''The Rod," a $5 flexible whipping stick, was described as the ''ideal tool for child training."

''Spoons are for cooking, belts are for holding up pants, hands are for loving, and rods are for chastening," read the advertisement she saw nearly two years ago for the 22-inch nylon rod. It also cited a biblical passage, which instructs parents not to spare the ''rod of correction."

The ad shocked Lawrence, a Lutheran who home-schools her children and opposes corporal punishment. She began a national campaign to stop what she sees as the misuse of the Bible as a justification for striking children. She also asked the federal government to deem The Rod hazardous to children, and ban the sale of all products designed for spanking. Lawrence says striking children violates the Golden Rule from the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament: ''In everything do to others as you would have them do to you."

[NJ Neocon]

Sorr.

I said: "When I was beaten I deserved it."

You said;

" Probably. I never said people didn't deserve punishment. Escalation from spanking to beating. That's what sometimes appens."

I said "maybe, but you should never condemn (then I said - Compare if you prefer) the mundane to the extreme.

[Protagoras]

I still don't know the question. Mundane and extreme are your terms.

You have a question, ask it.

[Scotsman will be Free]

I've got six kids. Two have been spanked once in their lives(currently 16 and 14 years old)One 9 year old gets spanked about once a year. The rest get it more often, but not very. I've known kids that don't ever need it, and others that needed it frequently. Different kids respond to different forms of discipline.

[LearnsFromMistakes]

But I never talked about punishment. The fact that you find them synonymous is telling.

I thought this thread was about using spanking as punishment. I don't know if that makes them synonymous, but I believe that is what we are talking about. What are you talking about?

[MineralMan]

Well, here's another take on "The Rod." This is actually available online:

[Trinity_Tx]

LOL Amen and amen...

[Nuzcruizer]

My Mother had a spanking board which was wider than that, but with a handle. it had "Board of Education" written on it, with a cartoon like picture of 4 boys on it with red behinds.
She knew how to use it too.

[MineralMan]

And here's "The Rod." I don't like the look of this thing. It looks like it would leave real welts on the kid:

[dangus]

I would love to see whether any psychological study has ever been done to confirm that systematic spanking does escalate to beating? It seems quite very possible to me that child abuse occurs more often in homes where there is no systemic corporal punshment, and instead where any hitting occurs merely as uncontrolled temper.

[arizonarachel]

My mother used spanking as a "training tool" and my brother and I lived in fear of receiving that punishment. If my fiance and I have children, there is nothing wrong with a spanking. I turned out great, so did my brother, and I am disgusted by the amount of children who back-talk their mothers and fathers.

[LearnsFromMistakes]

I only have 2 kids(11&9), but their number of spankings over their lifetime has varied greatly. My 9 year old, maybe 3 times in her life. My 11 year old, I won't even guess.

Parenting is a lost art. It is not taught, and had my mother not made me sit thru hours of her parenting classes at the church I grew up in, I don't know what I would have done.

[cartoonistx]

She's an idiot because she'd rather scream at her kids for 18 years than to spank 'em a few times until they learn to pay attention to her when she whispers. She's an idiot because she insists on defending other peoples kids from "the Rod" while she spoils her own by raising them without it.

[Rytwyng]

Right on target. Fear of spanking has to be backed up by the possibility of the real thing, or it's meaningless.

[Rebelbase]

I wonder what she thinks of the Tabby Tote©.

[Protagoras]

I thought this thread was about using spanking as punishment. I don't know if that makes them synonymous, but I believe that is what we are talking about. What are you talking about?

Spanking is a form of punishment. They are not the same thing.

To think someone can't be punished except physically is incorrect and shows a closed mindset. Probably because no other way has been contemplated or tried. I called that lazy. You may have your own definition.

[MineralMan]

And here's the ad for the thing. I don't mind spanking, but this is out of line, IMO:

[Trinity_Tx]

"I've never, ever, ever spanked my kids and yet somehow they have earned good grades, show respect for parents, teachers, LEOs, and adults in general, and have avoided series trouble. On the other hand, my parents spanked the crap out of me, and despite the beatings, I was a rebel and always in trouble and on several occasions I got to ride in the back seat of a police car. Go figure."

Same here. Although it wasn't I who (at least openly) rebelled, but my sibling. Still, I wasn't nearly as close or trusting of my parents as my sons are with me.

I have given half-hearted hand swats a few times, but they were nowhere near "punishment". Real punishment to my boys is having privileges or things taken away, or made to write something - sentences or essays. Being creative about punishments like that does take a lot more energy than spanking, IMHO.

Also...

In the article, it says, "he stands by the virtue of The Rod, which, he said, is safer than a belt or paddle."

That could be true, but if it's anything like a cane, crop, or tree switch, I can tell ya that I've been harmed - bruised and broken skin - much more by those things than any paddle or belt.

[Trinity_Tx]

I agree.

[1L]

How old are your kids?

Let's check the results in about 20 years. I can come close to assuring you you will regret not disciplining your children.

[1L]

I agree. A homemade paddle is much better.