No it's not....I spanked my kids and they knew why they were getting a licking too. Had nothing to do with parental failure, but it sure did on self-control I controlled the paddle......which incidentally my son had made himself. When the issues of spanking kids became a media hype I asked my grown sons if they ever felt they were abused. They 'laughed' and said of course not that they knew "corporate" punishment only came for the worst of the worst offenses....and that was rare. Then they said..."we had a "healthy" fear of that paddle and that kept us from doing what we might have otherwise done.
And let me further add.....when we see young kids screaming and yelling and kicking...fighting their parents... out in public...and it goes on and on...the psychological damage that does to a kid, for the duration of their tantrums, far 'exceeds' what a crack on the butt would to get them out of that tantrum.
I spanked my kids and they knew why they were getting a licking too. Had nothing to do with parental failure, but it sure did on self-control I controlled the paddle...
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Just reminded me.... The Vice Principal at my high school had a paddle about 3 feet long. It was a 1x4 made from hardwood and had numerous holes in the blade.
I experienced that paddle several times during my 3 years there. He would just make you remove your wallet, lean over a couple of feet from a filing cabinet and place your hands on the cabinet. The swats on the butt would raise welts where the holes were. He would then sit and talk about responsibility, discipline, the future, etc., for a few minutes and provide encouragement for improvement.
He had been a Navy Commander on a destroyer during WWII, and that man did a lot to teach me to respect him and rules. He later was moved to Principal at a new high school.
In today’s nanny state, with all their PC rules, that fine man would probably be fired and jailed for actually helping many of us rowdy teens to become successful citizens.