Spanking the pro-spanking lobby
Who even knew there was such a thing as a "pro-spanking lobby"? I only heard about it yesterday, directed to Dawg's Blawg by a google search about spanking that brought someone here. I turfed my post about it since it turned out to be about something serious, not teh funny, but an interesting topic nonetheless.
A "pro-spanking lobby"? Maybe you have to be a parent to be aware of such things. Or maybe I was caught by surprise because, honestly, I thought corporal punishment was more or less a thing of the past. As a non-parent I'm imminently unqualified to talk about the parenting aspect, but as a (former) kid who grew up with typical 50's-style corporal punishment (including the strap at school), I can emphatically say "it doesn't work". I thought society had finally figured this out.
But it appears that in response to recent SCC moves which would re-define spanking as child abuse, a "pro-spanking lobby" has been formed to safeguard the rights of parents to beat their kids. The "pro-spanking" link goes to none other than Focus on the Family: social conservatives, as usual the driving force behind any ignorant, regressive movement. The same neanderthals who'd enforce childbirth talk about parenthood in terms of physically-enforced "authority". Spanking works, they say, "it lets them know who's boss". (Well, by that logic, waterboarding should work even better, no?)
It's ironic that the same people who are so anxious to elevate fetuses to the status of fully-formed, living, breathing, independent "persons" argue that kids won't respond to discussion over spanking because they're not "little adults". Which they're not; but unlike fetuses, they are little persons, and deserve to be treated with respect, even when being disciplined. There is nothing more disrespectful than hitting someone.
The problem is that it's a lot more time-consuming to respectfully discipline kids than it is to just slap them around. I've seen my brother discipline his kids, and it's almost agonizing the amount of time and effort he puts into it. The result: the two greatest kids in the world, who because they have no idea what it feels like to have hands laid on them in anger, are less likely to accept such treatment in the future. And love their dad without reservation or fear. The bottom line is that they clearly haven't been hurt by lack of corporal punishment. So whatever reasons the pro-spanking lobby has for their stance, the argument that "spanking is necessary to raise good kids" isn't one of them.
A "pro-spanking lobby"? Maybe you have to be a parent to be aware of such things. Or maybe I was caught by surprise because, honestly, I thought corporal punishment was more or less a thing of the past. As a non-parent I'm imminently unqualified to talk about the parenting aspect, but as a (former) kid who grew up with typical 50's-style corporal punishment (including the strap at school), I can emphatically say "it doesn't work". I thought society had finally figured this out.
But it appears that in response to recent SCC moves which would re-define spanking as child abuse, a "pro-spanking lobby" has been formed to safeguard the rights of parents to beat their kids. The "pro-spanking" link goes to none other than Focus on the Family: social conservatives, as usual the driving force behind any ignorant, regressive movement. The same neanderthals who'd enforce childbirth talk about parenthood in terms of physically-enforced "authority". Spanking works, they say, "it lets them know who's boss". (Well, by that logic, waterboarding should work even better, no?)
It's ironic that the same people who are so anxious to elevate fetuses to the status of fully-formed, living, breathing, independent "persons" argue that kids won't respond to discussion over spanking because they're not "little adults". Which they're not; but unlike fetuses, they are little persons, and deserve to be treated with respect, even when being disciplined. There is nothing more disrespectful than hitting someone.
The problem is that it's a lot more time-consuming to respectfully discipline kids than it is to just slap them around. I've seen my brother discipline his kids, and it's almost agonizing the amount of time and effort he puts into it. The result: the two greatest kids in the world, who because they have no idea what it feels like to have hands laid on them in anger, are less likely to accept such treatment in the future. And love their dad without reservation or fear. The bottom line is that they clearly haven't been hurt by lack of corporal punishment. So whatever reasons the pro-spanking lobby has for their stance, the argument that "spanking is necessary to raise good kids" isn't one of them.
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