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Home › Articles › Discipline › To Spank or Not to Spank?

To Spank or Not to Spank?

Parents and Experts Weigh In

By Donna Smith

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"A lot of people will tell you that spanking makes a child submissive or gives them the idea that violence is normal. I'm here to tell you that is not the case. I think if a child is abused, then this certainly is the case, but spanking is a far cry from child abuse. If parents were a little less slack in their disciplining of their children, maybe we would be seeing a little more respect in our teenaged population. So far, spanking has worked for me. I have three very well adjusted, outgoing, respectful little children. I intend to keep it that way."

No!
"'Children learn what they live.' I've probably heard or read this expression a thousand times but never truly understood the meaning behind it until I had children of my own. I now know firsthand how my actions, behaviors and words affect my children each and every day," says Carma Haley Shoemaker, a mom of three from Asheville, N.C. "We as parents do our best to teach our children to use manners, to be polite and to be courteous of others by using our manners, being polite and being courteous to others. But why would we want to teach our children that when someone does or says something you disapprove of, you hit them especially at such an early age?

"Young children cannot differentiate between a spanking for doing something 'wrong' or the act of hitting. What they do understand is fairly simple: Their actions upset one of their parents and the result was their parent caused them pain by hitting them a spanking. So, to use what they know to live what they have learned the child may hit a sibling, a friend or a playmate when that person acts or says something that upsets the child. The irony is, the parent then becomes angry with the child for doing what they have done from birth: imitating their parents.

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