To spank or not to spank (WITH POLL)

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I always wonder what people think about laws which abolish corporal punishment. Corporal punishment is actually illegal in all of Scandinavia, much of Europe, and much of South America.

I favor such laws. I think such laws should be in place not to tell parents how horrible they are at parenting, but to empower parents to parent nonviolently.

I am committed to not hitting ANY child, including my own. To me it is barbaric, and it is disgusting. No child deserves such treatment.

Any thoughts on this issue?

Only under rare circumstances--such as when a child is very young, and runs in the street, and doesn't listen to reason.

If a child is not able to be reached otherwise, then a little spank on the butt might do the trick.

But only under rare circumstances. I'd rather not hit anybody. I'd rather not spank a child.

But when nothing else works......and the child's well-being is evidently in danger.

I voted 'yes, it should be illegal', but I do think that there are exceptions. However, to me, those exceptions don't fall under spanking. Like if a child is having a fit and the only way to get them 'out of it' is to slap them across the face or something, then I do think it should be allowed. But I don't think you should use spanking as a punishment. My mom did it sometimes and at some point I told her I would start hitting her back if she didn't stop, and that was the end of that.

I would love never to have to physically restrain a child--but that's inevitable, especially when the child is under preschool age. They just don't know what is safe and what is unsafe.

I was spanked 2-3 times throughout all my life, and it wasn't nice.
But the bad thing wasn't the thing itself, it was how angry my mom was...
Still, voted abolish that s**t. Won't keep parents from doing it in secret but whatever.

Spanking should not be done out of anger as it teaches children it's acceptable to lose your cool in that fashion. I do think it has its place in parenting, though, in certain circumstances. The individual child and their personality needs to be taken into account before any sort of physical action.

I don't know about spanking really. sometimes I think we have too many good deed doers telling people what is and is not an appropriate way to bring up children.

I've seen parents absolutely laying in to their children in public. This is not good, no whatsoever.

Personally I would never hit a child and I have never laid a finger on my own. But I don't believe a simple tap on the wrist can bring any harm.

We used to get the belt or the dog lead taken to us as kids and that was perfectly acceptable, no one batted an eyelid.

Its a good thing that there is child protection these days but not every parent who spanks their child is a child abuser. But that's just my opinion.

Yes, to me, anger is scarier than the spanking itself.
(I only had it like once or twice .. I think XD I was a good kid)

I have to say, yes I do agree with it being acceptable when there is no other option.
However, it shouldn't be used excessively. Maybe one or two times, and that's it.
Not many times a day, etc...

As far as adults go ... yeah I think they can do whatever they want to each other

-Ben

Before you hit your kid, who is like what 30 lbs, and you are what 180lbs? Just stop for a second and ask yourself, would it be okay for someone to hit you every time you messed up who is the larger than you by the same factor as you are to your kid? Would you want to be hit by a 1080 lb giant? No I don't think so. So if that isn't okay then don't be a coward and hit defenseless children.

I'm curious, what is your reasoning for saying that "hitting defenseless children" is cowardly?
It doesn't strike me as being cowardly... ( pun intended ... )

-Ben

It should be illegal in my opinion. I suppose it could work under sparsely occurring circumstances, but it should be illegal. It is unethical in my opinion to spank someone even for good reasons. Corporal punishment should definitely be criminalized. If it were legal people would probably abuse it.

It is not cowardly by definition but hitting a defenseless child definitely shows poor character.

Agreed.


Then, also relating to some other topics, like guns ... where do we draw the line? Pretty much anything can be excessively abused/used, to the point of causing serious harm.
And what about those who have better self control, whom would VERY rarely, if EVER, abuse something like this?


Yep, I can agree 100%!

-Ben

It should be illegal. It is illegal to slap anyone across the face or even butt to get your way, i.e. your wife didn't cook, your employee didn't do what he was told, your maid didn't do what she was supposed to. A child is a child and anyone who hits a child should be considered an abuser, just like anyone who hits an adult.

Back then, men who hit their wives because of cheating, because of not cooking for them or any reason was also ok and nobody batted an eyelid.

I believe adultery is illegal in many states in the USA.