Spanking children... acceptable or not as discipline?

[pink-o]

254. I'm 59 years old. I was spanked and so were all of my contemporaries.

It didn't turn us into psychos...however, times have changed and hopefully humans have evolved. Personally, I don't see how sitting a toddler down and explaining the Jungian theory of "the act is not the actor, and mommy loves you" is helpful discipline, but hitting a child, instilling fear of the person who's supposed to be his protector? That can't be good. Kids already get so many mixed messages from the world. When they're little, they need to know that their parents will take care of them.

Time outs work, if you have a social child. I hated being sent to my room, I always wanted to be in the thick of it. Sis, OTOH, let everyone know how happy she was to be sent away and get some solitude. I'm not sure how you discipline a child like that.

My firiend actually had the best (if not somewhat manipulative) method: whenever she saw her son disobeying, she drew a deep sigh, shook her head and looked absolutely crestfallen. Silently telling him: I guess I expected too much from you. Within seconds, he was throwing himself at her feet, apologizing, promising never to do it again. He's 20 now, and tells me to this day that got through to him far better than any hitting would.