Here this will clarify things for you. You are in some sort of weird Christian something or other like orthodox Presbyterian or some such. I am a very Orthodox Catholic. We love our children and whaling away on them is not a plank of the true Catholic religion. Into the Catholic church have been recruited certain demonic sodomites which have done their level best to destroy the Church from within. But they can’t kill it, much as they try.
Leftist social workers I am very familiar with and as well their stupidity. Believe me though, having done that kind of legal work, the cases they are spending time on are not cases like yours, but cases of fathers videoing for sale pictures of their children, step-fathers and “boyfriends” pulverizing, burning, encapsulating in concrete the children of their girlfriends, etc. Meth parents who raise babies on needle laden floors where the only furniture in the house is a bed for the adults and cockroaches all over the mildewed refrigerator. Don’t excite yourself that they are overly concerned with you.
The people that check out whenever a child is crying? Guilty. I do, definitely. If some “dad” sees his child fall on the concrete and says “eff you” to the child, or some fat mama slaps her child because he is bored stiff following her around the walmart endlessly because she should have put him down for his nap, you darn well better believe I am going to give her some input. If some heathen with tattoos endlessly smacks her little boy in the airport, you better believe I am going to suggest to her friend she speak with her about a parenting class and getting control of her emotions. Your situation is weird to me, glad it worked out for ya.
Here's a newsflash - not all kids are the same! What works for one may not phase another. The Bible says to raise up a child in the way he should go - according to his "bent" - and when we do that, we are assured he will not depart from the good upbringing he had. Kids need love AND discipline - it proves to them that we love them. Discipline in no way means brutality. Parents should never strike out in anger against their kids, and if they do, they should apologize. But with certain children, the only thing that snaps them out of fits of pique and stubbornness is a spanking. Note...I said "spanking" - not slapping, beating, bruising, bloodying or scarring. It CAN be done and, when necessary, it works.
You don't like Dobson, we get it, don't buy his books, don't listen to his teaching. This thread, however, is about VALUES. Those values that we once considered normal and society as a whole was unified on what was right and wrong. We have strayed away from moral values and there is a heavy price to pay. We need to do all we can to return our country to those moral standings if we ever hope to get back the blessings of God. I hope you can at least agree with James Dobson on that point!