Spanking children is wrong. Using force and inflicting pain to make a child understand something, no matter how it’s justified, is just abhorrent to me.
I can’t say that was always how I thought about the subject. But I’m glad my opinion has evolved, and I would never consider doing it again.
The idea that hurting a child intentionally, a miniature human you supposedly love, is the way to make them understand some lesson; well, it’s just stupid really. I feel that all it really teaches a child is that the people they love are capable of causing them pain. Might it deter a child from bad behavior? It’s entirely possible. But in my estimation and in published studies, it can also create a whole host of adjustment issues which appear later on down the line in the child’s life.
Add to any future emotional repercussions a child may have as an adult, the spanked child learns to repeat what was done to them in their childhood with the next generation. They will perpetuate the practice because they think it was normal. In reality, though, our society does not condone physical assault by adults on other adults. It’s simply not acceptable in our society. We actually put people in jail for that. But yet, spanking is a tradition which still remains to date. It makes no sense.
So maybe instead of just hitting our children into fearing their parent(s) and/or creating future spankers, let’s do things which would encourage the growth and development of a mature individual. That seems like a reasonable solution. Much better than a violent one.
I Write Her 