CLICK HERE FOR BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND MYSPACE LAYOUTS

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Spanking

I am apparently a fan of the controversial issues lately. So here I am, happily surfing my guilty pleasure, when I see this story about Kate Gosselin (yeah, go ahead and roll your eyes) spanking one of her kids.

All I have to say is: SO WHAT?!

There is nothing wrong with spanking, within a reasonable limit. No, I don't constitute beating your child, or hitting them for everything they do wrong, but sometimes, a kid needs the board of education on the seat of knowledge, if you know what I'm saying.

This is coming from someone who was spanked as a kid. I didn't turn out warped, and I don't have any mommy or daddy issues from it. Sometimes, a smack on the butt drives home the message when a time out or talking to fails.

It shouldn't be the first method tried but I don't see anything wrong with a spanking as a method of discipline. I could cite all types of cliches, like "spare the rod, spoil the child," etc but everyone knows what they are.

I just don't see spanking as abuse. What's your take on it?

4 comments:

bethany actually said...

Personally I hate spanking and didn't want to ever use it on my kid, but...there have been a handful of times (in the last two years of my child's five years of life) when nothing else was working and I resorted to a swat on the butt. Each time I've done it I've warned her it was coming and waited to see if she would stop misbehaving before actually spanking her. Every time, I've immediately felt terrible and apologized for hurting her...but you know what? It's WORKED every single time. I think part of the reason it works so well on my child, though, is that I don't spank her very often. It's always my LAST resort and I only use it when she's truly and willfully misbehaving and ignoring my attempts to reason with her.

I have friends who spank their kids as a regular form of discipline, and I have to say I'm not convinced it's working very well. Is it child abuse? No, most of the time it's not. Is it the best form of discipline out there? I don't think it is. But you know, people are allowed to raise their kids any way they choose, and every kid is different. The vast majority of parents don't spank because they want to hurt their kids, they do it because they think it's best for them.

Anonymous said...

I'm all for spanking... I was spanked as a child and I think I came out pretty well.

My parents were mean though. They would say- "When we get home you're getting a spanking for doing that." I remember the wait being horrible. I think that's the real punishment.

Lost In Splendor said...

Oh I am SOO on the opposite side of this one. I am vehemetly against spanking. I strongly feel that you can not hurt your child and expect it to not have a negative impact on them. I was spanked as a child. Not beaten, not abused just spanked when I did something really wrong. Do I remember what those things were? Not at all. Do I remember exactly how much I seethed with hatred at my father as a direct result? I sure as hell do. I actually feel a lot of my horrible relationship with my father stems from that.

That's just my opinion. I know most people who go to church (such as my parents are all about it) I just can't stomach it.

It's also the one thing KC and I don't agree with and I will be honest when I say it definitely gives me pause when I think about having children with her.

The Grown Up Teenager said...

@ bethany actually: I agree. I've never spanked a child (I believe in leaving that type of discipline to their parents, of course) but when its mine, I probably won't take it lightly either. But at the same time, if nothing else is working and they're deliberately disobeying me, I won't just throw my hands up and say "Oh well." It sounds like what you're doing it working well for you. :)

@ marla: Yeah, I didn't have any issues from it either. I mean, I didn't like it at the time, but that's sort of the point of punishment.

@ lost in splendor: I can understand where you're coming from, but I also think that when kids are doing something negative, they need to understand that it will have a negative reaction. If time out, reasoning, etc doesn't work, I think spanking is fine.

If I was with someone who was against it, I'm sure we could find a compromise.