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

[steve2470]

366. spanking is just a bad idea, period

I always come to these threads late lol....so I won't reiterate what everyone else has said. I just offer my own personal testimony. My dad was born in the south, in 1917, when pretty much everyone did corporal discipline. I was spanked until I was 12 (too late imho). The spanking just taught me to be afraid of my dad and not be close to him. I can forgive him for it, because he was from that era in the south.

You want your kids to cooperate with you, and they do so because they love you and trust you. If kids love you, trust you, and understand (as much as they can at their age) why you want their behavior to be positive, usually they will cooperate. Spanking goes against the feeling of love, of trust, of cooperation. It is pure physical domination and intimidation. Pure authoritarianism.

I've never spanked my son, and he is turning out wonderfully. Granted, he is what child psychologists call "an easy child", but he has always responded well to a rational explanation of good behavior and corrective non-abusive discipline. I don't hold out any hope that any minds will be changed by this thread. Pro-corporal discipline parents/adults cling to the parental precedent/"I turned out OK" argument at all costs.