only backgroundI'm a wife, mother and grandmother. I'm opinionated. I contradict myself frequently. Most of all, I love my kids. I believe in them. I fight for them. They're weird and wonderful. If you want to know more, here's a bunch of other stuff from my old site.
When I check my website stats, I’m always a little surprised to see the phrase “spank my son” somewhere near the top. Those are very short visits because Spank is the nickname of my second son. I guess that isn’t the info people are searching.
So, let’s talk about spanking. It seems to be a hot topic in California right now. A California state legislator is moving to making spanking children under the age of 4 illegal. The thought of this law sends shivers up my spine.
I must mention, first, that I do not advocate spanking. Yes, I spanked my two older sons a few times. No, I don’t think it helped their behavior nor do I believe I damaged them emotionally, psychologically or physically. When I ask them about it now, they laugh at me. They’re 27 and 25 and doing well.
However, the few times I spanked my older boys, I felt awful. In fact, my decision to not spank had more to do with how it made me feel than how it made them feel. The key phrase here is “my decision” because that’s what makes all the difference.
No local, state or federal government ought to be making laws in regard to family matters unless it’s absolutely imperative. The parenting decision to administer a quick, controlled swat to a butt does not rise to the level of abuse and is of no concern to the state. We have given away too many rights; this is just another that the state is attempting to take from us.
There are much better ways to discipline a child than spanking. That doesn’t make spanking a crime. And it certainly doesn’t make parents who spank criminals.
And people wonder why I’m a Libertarian!
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I guess it’s all in how you were brought up on if you spank your children now. I don’t have any but I was brought up with spankings. You do learn not to do stuff if you know you are getting the spanking though. I remember when we were bad and we were going to get a spanking it was our job to go to the kitchen to get a wooden spoon out of the drawer and that’s what she used. I also remember when that spoon broke when we were older and that was the end of them lol It was always my mother doing this because my father wasn’t around.
Poor USA. We lock up more people than any other country in the world. We execute more people than any other industrialized country in the world, and it seems we are the last of the parental boxers, too. Progress is hard. Just when we’re finally getting over those dratted child labor laws they come up with something like this.
Word!
[...] Â Let’s talk about spanking. I just read an entry on Marisa’s Dandelion patch where she talks about how California is looking into a law to make spanking a child under 4 illegal. Somehow, it seems like this would be taking a desire to protect the safety of children and twisting it into a law that invades the rights of your home. [...]
Of course there are already laws about child abuse. It’s just that this legislator believes that spanking=child abuse. That may be her opinion, but don’t try and regulate what families do to discipline their kids.
Alright..this is wierd for me because I’m almost always feaking out about how there are way too many laws and how all of are rights are being taken away from us..but on this I have to say, after all of my research.. I want it to be a law more than any other law on the books. For educated parents that don’t pull down their kids pants and beat the crap out of their kids in a public bathroom they don’t need the law, but all those kids whose parents do.. need are freakin help people! THEY are KIDS! who cares if they are not OUR kids. Unfortunately you don’t have to pass a “smart” test to be a parent. Makeing a “law” does a lot for these kids who don’t have a chance now… First of all, most parents want to do right by their children, and if spanking is illegal they are going to at least pause and think maybe I should at least do some research, after research on the subject they will realize..hey I don’t want to spank my kids. OK, I have way to much to say about this so I’m going to stop here, but I’d just like to say Sweden passed a no spanking law and the number of parents who spanked plummited so go them!