Spanking a child is a huge controversy. On each side of whether a parent should or should not spank their children, all parents has an opinion and point on the issue. Parents should spank their child as a form of punishment. When a child has been warned many times and still is misbehaving or not listening, they should be spanked. Spanking for discipline is not abuse.
Discipline is connection for children who don’t listen, while abuse is constant and results from anger or frustration of the parent.
Many people get these two confused when the topic of spanking their child comes up. They often see spanking as abuse. Abuse is nothing like discipline. Disciplining a child has benefits such as teaching children how to respect others and how to behave properly. When breaking a rule, the child should be punished and in the child’s mind they will realize that they cannot get away with the act and learn because of a spanking.
“When used correctly, spanking leads to lower defiance and lower aggression than 10 or 13 other disciplinary alternatives with which it has been compared,” said Jessica Pauline Ogilvie of the “Los Angeles Times.”
Using spanking in the wrong way can cause much damage to a child. When spanked repeatedly, improperly and constantly, the child is more likely to have a mental disorder in their adult life. This is child abuse.
When spanking, parents should give the kid a warning when misbehaving. Then when the child still is acting out then the parent should spank. Then after being spanked, the parent should tell the child what they did is wrong.This is not abuse.
“Research has found that children exposed to violence or abuse, if left unaddressed or ignored, are at an increased risk for emotional and behavioral problems in the future. Children who are abused may not be able to express their feelings safely and as a result, may develop difficulties regulating their emotions. As adults, they may continue to struggle with their feelings, which can lead to depression or anxiety,” said Joyful Heart Foundation.
Spanking is not abuse it is discipline that is needed when children misbehave. Spanking is to show a way of authority and respect. Abuse it when someone is constantly hitting out of rage, and for no reason. It’s to make someone scared of them and these abusers desire to be in power.
Behavioral problems are a huge concern nowadays. In school and in everyday life, people tend to have outbursts that are unnecessary. Children think they can get away with anything and there will be no consequences.
As a child grows up, punishment is an important part of molding a personality. People who typically have punishments at an early age for their bad behavior are more respectful and less likely to have an outburst of some sort.
“Kids who have permissive parents sometimes feel anxiety because they are managing their own decisions. Kids know they aren’t able to make good choices and want to learn from adults. The lack of guidance and help tends to provoke a lot of feelings of anxiety,” said Amy Morin on the website parenting.
“There is some stuff that I don’t do today cause when I was younger, I was spanked. It shows them that if they do anything bad, then when punished by spanking they learned to not do whatever they did again,” said junior Josh Dearman.
Kids who don’t get disciplined by spanking tend to reject authority and run around acting wild. They see authority as a joke, and, in the future, may end up in negative of situations.
“Some researchers have suggested that mild, occasional spanking is not harmful, especially when used in conjunction with other forms of discipline,” said Kendra Cherry of about education.com.
Spanking a child is a life lesson to them. They learn to respect others and themselves and learn to respect authority. Children nowadays don’t get spanked. More people see it as abuse and horrible parenting. However spanking is really just a form of physical discipline.
Rozetta • Jun 28, 2022 at 3:14 pm
Spanking doesn’t work for ALL children. It didn’t work for me. It made me behave worse! I hate my parents got ever putting their hands on me. They wonder why I don’t have any respect for them. Well, stop taking the Bible literally. If the research is correct, then why would God want Christians (and non-Christians) to harm their children? I say let the kids decide. Only they seem to know what works best for them.
Rennie Gade • Mar 19, 2021 at 4:03 pm
At age 69, I grew up at a time when child spanking was practically commonplace. A growing child’s bottom was almost universally understood to be available for corrective warming and reddening. My own growth and development should’ve included occasional pants-down trips across my mother’s and my oldest sister’s laps. But instead of giving me the spankings I deserved for things like stealing, lying, being rude and playing with matches, I was punished by the withdrawal of their affection.
I needed a certain amount of order in my young life, and when I knew I’d misbehaved, I also knew I needed punishing. Except for getting the strap once on my hands in Grade 7 (for playing at my desk when I should’ve been working), my childhood never featured a single instance of meaningful, memorable punishment. If a shameful, stinging strapping at school had been effective in teaching me a lesson, which it was, surely having my bottom soundly spanked at home could’ve been just as useful. The problems I had in the coming years with Actions & Consequences were hardly surprising.
Divorced without ever being a parent, I’ve never spanked a child. Still, I believe wholeheartedly in a naughty girl or boy being taken over the lap of adult authority for a good, sound, bare bottom spanking; certainly not for every little indiscretion, but as a guaranteed, attention-getting consequence of distinct disobedience. As a 14-year-old, I was once found to have been setting paper airplanes on fire in the basement of our new home. In a matter of hours, a real fire had broken out, and the fire department had to be called. We subsequently had to vacate the house for several months while repairs were made.
The fact that the fire was ultimately said to have started electrically in no way excused my blatant naughtiness. Deserving as my bottom was of being paddled pink, I never even got so much as a smack. Had I been a boy raised with occasional spankings, I have to wonder if I ever would’ve dared to be dangerously reckless.
James Jackel • Jul 29, 2018 at 3:28 am
I very much agree with all of the Statements and Points made Here.
I was Born in 1983 and Spanking was Still common but getting less so when I was a Kid. Had my Grandparents not been so Religious and Passed that Down to my Mom then She likely wouldn’t have Spanked me or let my Grandparents do it and I know now, but even then it was good correctly administered Discipline.
I also experienced the abusive kind from a Step Father who did it behind my Mom’s back. Honestly for years I didn’t tell my Mom in part because I told her not to Marry her Divorce Attorney and that something was wrong with him, but she didn’t think it was anything more than a Young Only Child who didn’t want to share his Mom.
I would find out I wasn’t the only one being Spanked either as He believed in Christian Domestic Discipline and when I was Visiting my Dad or Grandparents he Often addressed those things she did that he didn’t approve of and would actually Spank her He cited to Bible Verses that Directly Say a Woman is So subservant to her Husband as well as Some Proverbs. He told her since her Father gave her away to him, along with Other duties and responsibilities Correcting her and Such now was transferred to him.
Anyhow Good Article very surprised it was in a Recent High School Newspaper kudos.