Should spanking your child be a crime? (FOR THE CHILDREN alert)

WTNH.com ^ | November 28, 2007 | WTNH weenies

[cajungirl]

I am not suggesting criminalizing spanking.

I am suggesting it is assaultive and unnecessary.

Most monstrous children who grow up to be monstrous adults have been criminally abused.

I don’t think spanked children grow up to be monsters,,they just grow up cowering before power.

[Rutabega]

I have two kids; seven and nine. I have been single for a lot of their lives, and “close enough” for the rest. I lived in Sweden with them for the first few years and spanking of any sort was outlawed there. Luckily, the kids didn’t know it! :) I think both of them have been spanked, on average, about four times. My kids are always touted as the “most well-behaved” kids that strangers meet. No one has been abused, but all I have to do is ask them what I would do if they behave like XYZ who are behaving badly, and they give me the look that speaks volumes!

[Eagle Eye]

“Assaultive”? But not criminal? ok....

And yes, there are plenty of kids that should be or should have been spanked.

Just look at a chunk of the Boomer generation that to this day still acts spoiled and throws tantrums when they don’t get their way.

No one advocating spanking is advocating abuse and those of you who insist that spanking is abuse prove that there are those who simply don’t know the difference.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Didn’t seem to adversely affect me, my husband nor my son. My sister is using the “timeout” on her girls. Unfortunately she will find out later that she will wish she had spanked. Children rarely if ever forget why they were spanked.

Unfortunately, what “time-outs” teach a child (over and over and over and over again ...) is that SELF-DISCIPLINE and SELF-CONTROL are a PUNISHMENT!

So why be quiet and still and peaceable (in church, or in the car, or in a store or in school) if being punished means being quiet and peaceful and under self-imposed (self-controlled-by-threat of MORE peace & quiet time!) limits on behavior?

Follow the one-finger rule:

A child under one year old (when they need punishment - and they DO understand punishments and rewards and love and discipline!) gets one finger.

Under two years old? Use 2 fingers for spanking.

Under three? 3 fingers.

Under four? Four fingers.

Under five? One hand - NEVER a belt of other device. (If the grownup's hand hurts when it hits a diaper or bottom then the child won't be beaten.

[Robert A Cook PE]

If he forgets it again, you’re enjoying it too much...

Or he is. 8<)

[Robert A Cook PE]

Another who follows the liberal (educators’ and socialists’) deliberate trick of pretending “spanking a child” is exactly equal to “hitting a child” and therefore equal to “child abuse” ....And therefore should be criminalized like child abuse.

Then again, the homosexual crowd is doing all they can to allow/mandate/require seduction and indoctrination into homosexual behavior as the “norm” for society. To a liberal, exaggeration ONLY depends on whose side they want to lie about.

[pandoraou812]

I'm going on 50 next year. I can well remember growing up in a neighborhood of cops. My father wasn't one. However all us children would hang out by the school across the street. We little kids didn't do too much wrong but I can tell you when one father took off his belt all of us ran home asap. It was not uncommon then in my neighborhood for somebody's father to give you a whack, usually the rowdy older boys. I never got one but I remember my brother getting belted & my dad asking him why & when he found out the boys were smoking my brother got in more trouble.

These days unless its a close friend's children I don't even bother to say anything if a child does something wrong, like hit another child. I take mine & any children I am watching into our yard. I've dealt too many times with the denial parents whose children are always angels & its always your child to blame. Heck I had one mother try to hit me with a broom when I knocked on her door bring her son & mine who had fought over to their house so she could help deal with the problem. I just went home & called the cops, I wasn't dealing with a supposed adult who certainly was a kook.

[Arthur McGowan]

That’s a silly, unscientific notion!

God kills a kitten.

[HungarianGypsy]

Would you believe this? My own children thought it the most stupid thing for there to laws against spanking. They are 10 and 13.

[CT-Freeper]

I spanked my boyfriend when he forgot our anniversary. He forgot next year too, so I had to spank him again.

Lucky guy!

[xsmommy]

in my experience, swatting a behind has never been about HURTING the child, it hurts their feelings more than anything else and that is why it is effective.

[dynachrome]

Thanks to Gregotx for da ping! a late ping, but poll is still alive.

FREEP THIS POLL ***PING!*** FRmail me if you want to be added or removed from the Fearless Poll-Freeping Freepers Ping list. And be sure to ping me to any polls that need Freepin', if I miss them. (looks like a medium volume list) (gordongekko909, founder of the pinglist, stays on the list until his ghost signs up for the list)

[ukie55]

Of course not. It won’t stop the real abuse and will just create a new class of criminals-parents, who have really done nothing wrong.

[ukie55]

There’s another verse in Proverbs (I can’t recall where) that basically says if you spank your child he *surely will not die*.

[ukie55]

Taking away privileges works OK for older kids but for a defiant two year old, it just doesn’t seem to go too far. There’s not enough immediate connection to the behavior in many cases.

And there’s some pretty tough two year olds out there.

[ukie55]

Spanking is not “hitting” and is not child abuse.

Yes, sometimes you are out of ideas. When nothing else works, that’s what to use.

I spanked my kids and they are not violent. They’re wonderful non-violent kids who I’m proud of.

When I got spanked as a kid and knew I had it coming because I had been warned, I never resented it. I did resent it when I got it for something I didn’t do, but that applied to ALL discipline I didn’t deserve, spanking or not.

[Mr. Jeeves]

I don’t think spanked children grow up to be monsters,,they just grow up cowering before power.

Which might explain why all those children raised in the "spare the rod, spoil the child" homes of the 1950's grew up to be authority-craving Democrats. ;)

I'm convinced bad behavior in children arises when parents don't know how to manage their own emotions.

[MEGoody]

Should spanking your child be a crime?

No.

[MEGoody]

Parents who hit their children have NO RIGHT and NO RATIONAL BASIS to expect that their children will have affection for them, trust them, or love them.

We spanked our son when he was a kid, and our relationship with him is great. You are confusing spanking with someone hitting their kid because they have lost control of their temper. There's a huge difference, and the kids know it.

[NavyCanDo]

Maybe if we just don’t call it “spanking” it would not be an issue. In my home I call it - Applying the Board of Education to their Seat Of Knowledge.