Americans’ Opinions On Spanking Vary By Party, Race, Region And Religion

[tularetom]

2. In my mind it isn't a very big step from whipping your kid with a tree branch

to slugging your girlfriend in an elevator.

I don't give a flying fuck what the buybull says. If it's wrong to strike in anger at someone who is smaller and weaker than you are, it's wrong.

My mom (and dad too when he was home) used to swat me on the ass with a wooden spoon. They didn't do it out of any altruistic desire to set me on the straight and narrow, they did it because they were angry and frustrated that I didn't do something they told me to do, or did something they told me not to do. In other words they were pissed that I had dissed them and they took it out on me in revenge.

It didn't happen frequently but often enough so that I could see it coming. I knew when they were pissed and I learned not to give them the satisfaction of a reaction. So I just stood there and took it, no matter how much it stung. When they saw that I wasn't going to scream, cry, apologize or beg them to stop, they figured out that it wasn't an effective method of punishment for me.

As a parent I saw the thing from the opposite viewpoint and I had to fight really hard to refrain from lashing out at my kids in anger, particularly the boy. But I held back because I knew if I resorted to swatting him, he had won. Yes I spanked them, generally to keep them from running out in the road or something else that may have been dangerous.

If you're a parent, you ought to be smarter than your kids. Beating them just lowers you to their emotional level.