If you couldn't spank them, how could you scare them?
2:51 PM Wed, Nov 28, 2007 | Permalink
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How can Massachusetts consider banning spanking? I would have wholeheartedly supported a ban on spanking when I was, say, 8 years old. I can't remember ever being spanked, but if Massachusetts lawmakers wanted to remove the threat of corporal punishment from my life, I'd have been all for it. My dad was a former Marine, and he could get his point across with a not-so nuanced look. I usually knew when to stop pushing my luck. Now that I'm older and have kids of my own, I think lawmakers in my home state would do a great disservice to parents if they banned spanking. We parents don't need spanking to keep our kids in line as much as we need the threat of spanking. If a parent's menacing look isn't backed up by the potential for a backhander, it has no value. Without that, a parent's anger escalation options stop somewhere around, "If you don't stop punching your brother and start eating your peas, you won't be able to watch Sponge Bob after dinner." But then if the spanking ban gets approved, what's next? Prison for parents who don't let their kids watch TV? 
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ANOTHER AVENUE FOR GOVERNMENT CONTROL. HOW CAN THE STATE OUTLAW SOMETHING, POSSIBLY ONE OF THE LAST THINGS SUPPORTING THE MORAL FIBER OF THIS COUNTRY'S YOUTH. CHILDREN ARE OVER STIMULATED TODAY, AND IF THEIR PARENTS AREN'T ALLOWED TO THREATEN, HOW CAN WE PARENT? LET'S FACE IT, ABUSE IS ABUSE, BUT A SPANKING EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE IS WHAT KEEPS MOST KIDS IN LINE. IF A CHILD IS BEING ABUSED, IT'S AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SUBJECT.
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If you have to spank your kids more than once or twice, you're not timing it right. A "backhander" has to be delivered on the butt when you have absolutely reached your limit on a big issue, not on a small issue, has to be used in combination with a threat and it has to hurt a little bit. Otherwise it quickly loses it's effectiveness!
My father whacked one of my siblings just once and none of us ever needed it again after that. I think that was the only time he ever raised a hand to us. My mom spanked us as needed -- over the knee on the rocking chair, but one time the cat attacked her while she was spanking my sister. Sometimes my mom got teary when she had to spank, too.
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