Posted on 07/05/2004 4:44:21 AM PDT by AngloSaxon
When I recall my childhood, one image is, looking over my shoulder at a descending belt, which most certainly did leave red marks. Important Remedial Information was transmitted up the spinal cord to the brain, resulting in arrest-free, divorce-free, welfare-free, drug-free and happy productive lives for me and my five siblings.
The only time I ever act up is on here, while posting. :-)
I was beaten with a belt which left huge red whelts and bruises on me, the buckle really made terrible wounds on me, all the while I was being cussed out. Usually my dad was upset at someone else and took it out on me. All I learned was to fear and hate my father. I used to hope and pray he would die in a car wreck on his way home. He was so mean and cruel to me, my sisters, and my mother. He never really talked to us, we were lowly females. My sister didn't find out until she was about 40 that my father had an older brother who is still MIA in WWII. He never talked to us nice and calmly.
I have long ago forgiven him, no one is that angry and mean on purpose. I never whipped my kids with a belt. I found that a tiny slap on their leg, and I mean tiny, same way I gave them a love pat, was all it took to get their attention. You don't have to beat them. There is a thin line between spanking and beating, it can escalate. And there was no place to go to and complain back in the 1950s.
I have never hit, spanked or slapped my almost-six-year-old daughter.
She is a spirited one, and we have had more than our share of (ahem) disagreements.
But I simply could not ever imagine raising a hand to her in anger. I just don't understand how parents can do it.
Spankin' bump. Just wait until an untouchable generation of cretins grows to teenhood in England.
Poor Britain!
"But I simply could not ever imagine raising a hand to her in anger. I just don't understand how parents can do it."
Anger? Do you believe that those who spank their kids do it because they're angry? Love has more to do with it than anger.
In my father's defense, I will admit that I was a pretty awful kid...We all were-Always up to something. But we were never spanked unless we ignored repeated warnings, and not because someone else had a bad day. I do agree with you that there are some that take it out on their children, but there is a big difference. Nevertheless I likewise was filled with rage at the time. Some of my father's punishments were really creative. Knowing I hated baseball, the worst one, worse than a spanking, was to make me stay indoors and watch baseball games on a beautiful June Day. That punishment was reservd for SERIOUS transgressions, like making gunpowder and bombing the neighbor's chicken coop.
We were bright creative kids, who found really interesting ways to p*ss people off, and extremes were sometimes needed to get our attention.
Proverbs 13:24
Yes, I have heard that said before. Perhaps it is true.
I am not judging what decisions other loving parents make when it comes to disciplining their children. Well, I am actually, but I would never presume to tell another parent what they should or shouldn't do.
But apart from the fact that I believe spanking to be counter-productive, I simply don't have it in me to hit my daughter with such force as would be required in order for it to act as a deterrent to future misbehavior.
The West contemplates its navel.
I agree with you LibKill.
Spare the rod, spoil the child.
A power-grab by the state
In yesterday's Observer ("The Guardian on Sunday") there were articles both condemning the punishment of children by parents, and also calling for laws against "anti-social behaviour" (unruly kids)
It's an attempt by Government to appropriate for itself the task of child-raising. Nothing more.
Those that don't discipline their children, hate them.
"Hitting is punishment, not discipline."
Do not withold discipline from a child;
if you punish him with the rod he will not die.
Punish him with the rod
and save his soul from death.--Proverbs 23:13-14
Sounds like good advice to me.
Suddenly I remember chatting with you about this some time back. Your point of view hasn't changed, and neither has mine.
Let's not waste each other's time.
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