Spanking Child With Wooden Spoon Not Child Abuse, Says State Court

[moriah]

25. Right or not, in my state, it's legal.

"Abuse does not include physical discipline of a child if reasonable and moderate and inflicted by a parent or guardian for restraining or correcting a child. Listed as not reasonable or moderate for correcting or restraining: -- Throwing, kicking, burning, biting, cutting, striking with a closed fist, shaking a child under 3, striking or other actions which result in any non-accidental injury to a child less than 18 months, interfering with a child's breathing, threatening a child with a deadly weapon, striking a child on the face, or any other act that is likely to cause bodily harm greater than transient pain or minor temporary marks. [Statute says this is an illustrative and not exclusive list]. Age, size, condition of the child, and the location of the injury and frequency or recurrence of injuries shall be considered in determining "reasonable" or "moderate." -- http://kidjacked.com/legal/spanking_law.asp#arkansas

Even my mother's unintentional injuries (and that's the biggest thing about corporal punishment, to me -- people tend to choose it when they're angry, and that's the time they're least capable of administering it "reasonably" and "moderately&quot could have been considered more than "minor temporary marks", it's likely even today she wouldn't have been charged.

Even in this case, bruising may not be considered enough evidence to consider it abuse. From an opinion in Maine from 2000 (so at least it's in this century vs last):

"1. All American jurisdictions allow parents to use at least moderate or reasonable physical force when they reasonably believe that such force is necessary to control their children;
2. To trigger criminal liability:
(a) the physical harm caused by the parent's use of force must be greater than transient pain and minor, temporary marks or bruises; and
(b) the parent's belief that such physical contact is necessary must be more than unreasonable; it must be a gross deviation from what a reasonable and prudent parent would believe in the same situation."

Does this mean I'd spank my kids if I had any? Probably not. I'm not saying I wouldn't smack a hand away from a hot stove, or smack a diaper and say "No!" as I'm hauling a kid away from the street if they tried to run out into it. If you think either of those two are extreme, maybe you haven't seen a kid get hit by a car or pull a pan of hot grease onto themselves.