Well, I didn’t know exactly where to place this subject, so I guessed here would do. I read recently that the Britons may well find their right to physically discipline their own children taken away by law. In short, no spanky spanky.
It’s happened here in the States, to various degrees, but what it all boils down to is that parents are not allowed to paddle their own kids when they don’t listen and schools and teachers are not allowed to use any for of physical discipline at all, even to the extent of taking a kid by the arm to make him stop something.
I was spanked as a child, but never beaten, and I recall how the threat of being spanked was very often much more persuasive in keeping me out of trouble than just being talked to or having restrictions applied. I even recall being warned not to do something again, after I did it, but going back and doing it again and again until my Dad warmed my ass for me. THEN I stopped.
I recall in school antagonizing another kid, who orally warned me to leave him alone and since I felt no pain, I kept on, as kids will, being a pain in the ass to him until he belted me in the mouth. I left him alone after that.
I’m a big fan of spanking as necessary, having watched the piss poor results so many of my friends have had with their kids using ‘time outs’, restrictions, discussions and no spankings at all. I’ve known teenagers to just ignore their folks no matter what they said because Mom and dad never spanked them, forcibly grabbed them and they know very well the limits of the law concerning them.
Restrict the child to the room, and he walks out anyhow. Forbid him to go somewhere and he leaves through the window. Tell him not to hang with some people and he does it. Stop his allowance and he doesn’t care. Have him see a shrink, and he lies and is bored.
Parents who still spank their kids seem to have much better control over them and the kids know that they cannot get their own way all of the time and this seems to actually increase their people skills.
Now, PLEASE pay attention. I said spank, not beat the living shit out of a kid.
So, British folk, what do you think about the law soon to be enacted which will start taking the control of your own children out of your hands?
What? Me worry?’
), but the British law seems to be simply putting some commonsense limits on spanking. I don’t think even those who endorse spanking can really object.