Is Spanking Children A Good Idea?
I was spanked as a child. I had a father who didn't use the belt that often, but when he did decide to, he did it well. I also received the occasional paddling at school (a whopping three, one a year from sixth through eighth grade). As a result, I grew up and determined that spanking was okay and that I would utilize similar corporal punishment methods with my own children.
I did spank occasionally with my first child, but the use of this form of punishment waned on me fairly quickly, and by the time my second child had arrived, it had been reduced to the occasional smack on the back of the hand. For some reason, the thought of laying hands on my children had become abhorrent to me.
There are of course two schools of thought when it comes to spanking. One that it is a good and proper method of discipline, usually accompanied by the "spare the rod, spoil the child" mantra, and the other is that it is simple violence against children, and one step removed from child abuse. It also suggests that spanking teaches children that it is okay to hit someone when you are angry with them.
In recent years, there have been more alternatives to spanking, such as the ubiquitous "time out", where the child is made to sit by themselves doing nothing and with no interaction for a specified period of time.
Some parents assign extra chores or other household duties as punishment. To a child, anything that takes away from their play or leisure time is pure torment.
You can also take away certain privileges, namely the ones that mean the most to them. This is the first cousin to "grounding". A child does not want to lose TV or computer privileges, so determine what their priorities are and go from there.
I have reached the conclusion as a parent of three children that spanking is not an acceptable form of punishment, as it sends more counterproductive skills than it does positive ones. There are much better alternatives to spanking that have much more positive and productive. As a result, I have refrained from paddling my subsequent two children and will encourage them to likewise look for other methods of punishment in raising their own children.
Likewise, I am also not a fan of corporal punishment in schools. If it is inappropriate for a parent to hit their child, it becomes doubly so for someone else to do it. Currently, 21 states still allow corporate punishment or paddling to be carried out by various school systems. If you are concerned about this practice, you should contact your child's school and let them know of your wishes in this regard, should your child ever require punishment while at school. Tell them that corporal punishment on your child will not be tolerated, and work out a mutually acceptable form of punishment between you and the teacher.
Of course there are other schools of thought on the matter, as I said before, but in this author's opinion, corporal punishment walks a line that it too close to child abuse for comfort. The idea of an adult hitting a child is disturbing at best, horrific at worst, and will most likely have no long term effect, at least not one that the parent is trying to achieve.
I did spank occasionally with my first child, but the use of this form of punishment waned on me fairly quickly, and by the time my second child had arrived, it had been reduced to the occasional smack on the back of the hand. For some reason, the thought of laying hands on my children had become abhorrent to me.
There are of course two schools of thought when it comes to spanking. One that it is a good and proper method of discipline, usually accompanied by the "spare the rod, spoil the child" mantra, and the other is that it is simple violence against children, and one step removed from child abuse. It also suggests that spanking teaches children that it is okay to hit someone when you are angry with them.
In recent years, there have been more alternatives to spanking, such as the ubiquitous "time out", where the child is made to sit by themselves doing nothing and with no interaction for a specified period of time.
Some parents assign extra chores or other household duties as punishment. To a child, anything that takes away from their play or leisure time is pure torment.
You can also take away certain privileges, namely the ones that mean the most to them. This is the first cousin to "grounding". A child does not want to lose TV or computer privileges, so determine what their priorities are and go from there.
I have reached the conclusion as a parent of three children that spanking is not an acceptable form of punishment, as it sends more counterproductive skills than it does positive ones. There are much better alternatives to spanking that have much more positive and productive. As a result, I have refrained from paddling my subsequent two children and will encourage them to likewise look for other methods of punishment in raising their own children.
Likewise, I am also not a fan of corporal punishment in schools. If it is inappropriate for a parent to hit their child, it becomes doubly so for someone else to do it. Currently, 21 states still allow corporate punishment or paddling to be carried out by various school systems. If you are concerned about this practice, you should contact your child's school and let them know of your wishes in this regard, should your child ever require punishment while at school. Tell them that corporal punishment on your child will not be tolerated, and work out a mutually acceptable form of punishment between you and the teacher.
Of course there are other schools of thought on the matter, as I said before, but in this author's opinion, corporal punishment walks a line that it too close to child abuse for comfort. The idea of an adult hitting a child is disturbing at best, horrific at worst, and will most likely have no long term effect, at least not one that the parent is trying to achieve.
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