Hoot said:
Hitting a child is wrong. Period. The act of spanking a child is violence. You do not gain some sort of all knowing merciful lesson by an act of violence. I still say that those parents who spank their children are poor parents, those incapable of teaching a lesson except by violence.
Yeah, great lesson, there.
That is absolutely ridiculous. When you spank your child, you are simply teaching them that there are consequences for their actions. No decent human being enjoys having to spank their children. However, there are times with many kids that spanking them may be the only way to truly impress upon them something.
For example, say if you had a 5 year old child that consistently pulled away from you and ran out into the street. Now, say despite all your efforts, every time you decided to walk to the park or anywhere, that child was taking every opportunity to pull away from you and run out into the street. At that point, it may well be a good idea to, as they say where I am from, wear that child out. Time outs, and all this new age crap does not work on every kid out there. Some kids are easy, they always mind and if they don’t, they feel terrible about misbehaving after only getting a talking to about it. However, some kids are harder, and some kids may need to be spanked. If you have to regularly spank your child, then you as a parent are doing something wrong, but there are times when a kid may need to be wore out. If you have a child that does not respect you and mind you at the age of 5 or 6, then what in the world are you going to do with them at the age of 15 or 16?
The fact that people don’t discipline like that should and are not as consistent in their parenting as they should be is why you have so many brats running around these days. My wife and I have a 5 year old son and there has been a few times when we had to give him a spanking. I hate doing it, I feel terrible when I have to do it, but by God my child is going to mind me and my wife. That’s all there is to it. Moreover, he is very polite, always says yes sir and no sir or yes mam and no mam, always says thank you, and is thoughtful of others. We are constantly doing things with him. Going of day trips, hiking, canoeing, fishing, going to museums, historical sites, anything to get him outside and away from a TV. When we go out to eat, he is always well behaved and we get complements on his behavior quite often. I don’t think we are bad parents because we have spanked him. In fact, I would argue that we are better parents because that is a possible consequence to his actions.
I am my son’s friend, but first and for most, I am his parent. Your child has to respect you. In fact, the more they respect you, the closer their relationship will be to you.