This post was going to be on yet another AP piece on how hard President Aloof worked during his just-completed Hawaiian vacation-funny how our objective news outlets continue to feel the need to remind us that he’s on the ball with everything. (I don’t remember the AP making similar efforts on President Bush’s behalf while he vacationed.)
But, I’m worn out from all the political BS, so this article proved more interesting. Spanking has it’s benefits:
Young children who are smacked by their parents grow up to be happier and more successful than those who have never been hit, research claims.
It found that children who are smacked before the age of six perform better at school when they are teenagers.
They are also more likely to do voluntary work and to want to go to university than those who have never been physically disciplined.
There is of course a caveat to their findings, in that older children (over six years of age) who were spanked tended to develop behavioral problems. But for the younger set, not only is such discipline not detrimental, it actually seems to net some positive effects. It is interesting that after a certain age it becomes more problematic; maybe by then kids have matured to the point where it is no longer effective in curbing behavior and therefore breeds resentment. I don’t see the problem with spanking- I was punished with it as a kid, as were my siblings, and I can say without hesitation that you tended to learn your lesson afterward and not repeat the offense. Certainly there is a difference between discipline and outright abuse.
I’m curious if anyone feels as some do that it shouldn’t be done, regardless, and/or if you spank your own children.
Incidentally…Another interesting area of study is that which compares the development (as well as personality) of adults who had no siblings growing up to those who had at least one brother or sister. At a certain point, based on someone’s personality, you really can tell with a pretty good rate of success who had siblings and who didn’t. (Without, obviously, knowing for sure either way beforehand.)
#1 by zen on January 4th, 2010
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No children yourself, Anon?
#2 by Anon on January 4th, 2010
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Not yet, which is another reason I posted about it. Kids have been a topic of late with my better half, though we’re not on the same page in terms of how we’d approach discipline. So, aside from studies I was curious how others felt about it.
#3 by Deb SF on January 4th, 2010
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I’m 52 and grew up in a pretty strict Catholic household. Spanking with the hand, back of a hairbrush and a belt were an occasional feature of growing up. My brother got spanked a lot; me, prob a half dozen times while growing up. It was the cultural norm in the 50’s and 60’s, and it was easy. Spanking did my brother no good, it taught him that hitting was OK to control other people, but he had a host of other problems- my folks adopted him when he was a year old, and he had spent 12 months with his biological mom, a woman who tried to hide the pregnancy (so I’d been told). I never hit my son when he was growing up (he’s 21 now), mostly because I never needed to.
#4 by PDeverit on January 4th, 2010
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Child buttock-battering vs. DISCIPLINE:
Child buttock-battering for the purpose of gaining compliance is nothing more than an inherited bad habit.
Its a good idea for people to take a look at what they are doing, and learn how to DISCIPLINE instead of hit.
I think the reason why television shows like “Supernanny” and “Dr. Phil” are so popular is because that is precisely what many (not all) people are trying to do.
There are several reasons why child bottom-slapping isn’t a good idea. Here are some good, quick reads recommended by professionals:
Plain Talk About Spanking
by Jordan Riak,
The Sexual Dangers of Spanking Children
by Tom Johnson,
NO VITAL ORGANS THERE, So They Say
by Lesli Taylor M.D. and Adah Maurer Ph.D.
Most compelling of all reasons to abandon this worst of all bad habits is the fact that buttock-battering can be unintentional sexual abuse for some children. There is an abundance of educational resources, testimony, documentation, etc available on the subject that can easily be found by doing a little research with the recommended reads-visit http://www.nospank.net.
Just a handful of those helping to raise awareness of why child bottom-slapping isn’t a good idea:
American Academy of Pediatrics,
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,
Center For Effective Discipline,
PsycHealth Ltd Behavioral Health Professionals,
Churches’ Network For Non-Violence,
Nobel Peace Prize recipient Archbishop Desmond Tutu,
Parenting In Jesus’ Footsteps,
Global Initiative To End All Corporal Punishment of Children,
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
In 26 countries, child corporal punishment is prohibited by law (with more in process). In fact, the US was the only UN member that did not ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
#5 by PDeverit on January 4th, 2010
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The vast majority of professionals agree that child buttock-battering isn’t healthy. A marginal few (mostly religious fundamentalists) think that child bottom-slapping is good. They use the same selective literalist interpretation of the Bible as was used to justify “witch”-burning, depraved torture methods for those accused of sin and heresy, slavery, racism, wife-beating, oppression of women and a host of other social ills.
#6 by Phil Chroniger on January 5th, 2010
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I think that the occasional butt-smack (not going overboard or anything) is good because it gets the child’s attention in a quick moment.
We do mostly time-outs and the taking away of toys with my son, but sometimes a quick smack will get your child’s attention when other things fail. It does with mine, and now he knows that there are consequences to his actions. It worked for me as a child (I knew that if I got out of line, I would get punished, and a spank was one of the options my parents could use…that fear of consequences was more effective in the long run).
Mind you, when I talk about spanking, I’m talking about one or two smacks…not excessive amounts of spanking, or using it as an “every time” punishment, but it’s an option that should be left on the table.
And no, I don’t use any interpretation of the Bible for my reasoning behind my ways of correcting my child.
#7 by megan on January 5th, 2010
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Ditto Phil.