tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4739584657780261503.post7952292905893584326..comments2011-04-27T16:55:01.045-07:00Comments on The Mama Machine: Spanking: Effective Discipline or Harmful Abuse?The Mama Machinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06374986889377404311noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4739584657780261503.post-45934563489036359912010-09-26T11:35:05.909-07:002010-09-26T11:35:05.909-07:00This is a very complicated issue. I was given the...This is a very complicated issue. I was given the "Straight Talk About Spanking" article to critique, and I'm almost finished. But I skimmed this blog entry a week beforehand.<br /><br />It's very easy to be emotional when taking a stand like this, factoring in experiences and information.<br /><br />In short, I am hoping that on some level, this blog is meant to express feelings on what she wants to do with her family and why. But when it starts going into legal territory, people tend to get defensive.<br /><br />In Canada (where I'm from), the law states that a parent can spank their child legally in their own home if the child is from the ages of 2 and 12, but it must be with a hand only using reasonable force (this is vague to some opponents), and no implements.<br /><br />While there are numerous instances of research finding correlations of even mild spanking to many dire ills, one child development theorist who came up with the four parenting styles (authoritarian, authoritative, permissive and neglectful/rejecting), Diana Baumrind, asserts that while she does not endorse spanking, if it is in the context of an authoritative (which is to say loving, yet presents boundaries and reasonable expectations) parenting style, an occasional swat isn't likely to cause significant harm in the long term.<br /><br />I also found statistics about Sweden... Google "Sweden abolishing spanking statistics better or worse?” and the first document is a PDF from the University of Akron. I was born in 1979, the year the law was passed, and although I found information from nospank.net (http://www.nospank.net/durrant.htm) that said there was information given on alternatives to spanking, it seems they abused their children in other ways and these children became more violent and committed more crimes as teens. <br /><br />That said, I don't have any children yet, I don't know that I won't change my mind, but as it stands now, I hope to co-sleep and not spank. My boyfriend believes in it because he was raised in by authoritative parents and he believes that he deserved it when he got it, which wasn't often. We're not quite on the same page about it, but he does consider it a last resort. <br /><br />Whereas my mother spanked me for no discernable reason to my recollection other than I may have been playing too loud, and it progressed to wooden spoons.<br /><br />In the end, my opinion is that one must do what they feel is right for their family, and only changed if abuse can be proven and substantiated.CaperGrrlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00888043300227266872noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4739584657780261503.post-16167594772104917922010-09-13T07:33:01.935-07:002010-09-13T07:33:01.935-07:00I believe in spanking. So sue me. I also believe...I believe in spanking. So sue me. I also believe that as of a while ago, this country is doing absolutely nothing but raising children who do not realize the power of personal choice, who cannot face a single second of rejection because they were never told a simple "NO" growing up. We are creating a society that has been coddled to death, and suffocated by the fact that they know no failure. <br />And where will this end? When we cease to be 'parents', and children cease to be 'children'? Where your rights as an individual to do, eat, speak, think what you wish are no longer there? <br />There is research and a conclusion to prove every single theory out there. To criticize or condemn people who believe differently than you, is flat out wrong, and it defies the very freedom that this country stands for.<br />Your entire blog is an attack on people of different beliefs...on people who believe they are doing the best thing FOR THEIR FAMILIES. <br />Your posts (especially the one about co-sleeping) is almost offensive in its ignorance about how people (like me) choose to sleep-train our children.Monkeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04315605805512487339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4739584657780261503.post-3713836462929203272010-09-11T14:00:40.719-07:002010-09-11T14:00:40.719-07:00I very much enjoyed this.
It's amazing isn&...I very much enjoyed this. <br /><br />It's amazing isn't it? All the evidence of how harmful spanking is, emotionally, physically etc., yet there are still parents that believe spanking to be a positive discipline tool. <br /><br />Funny, the above comment states that "if people were more educated...they would be better able to make informed decisions", yet my understanding was that to be more educated, meant to see the truths in how harmful spanking is. <br /><br />I agree completely with your statement of "If it is punishable by law to strike another adult, someone else's child, and even animals, those same basic human rights should be extended to a child by their parents." <br /><br />But, unfortunately, some parents feel they have every right as their childs parent, to spank them if they so choose.~Darlene~https://www.blogger.com/profile/15007025172407043640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4739584657780261503.post-40801475798102710482010-09-11T07:57:50.699-07:002010-09-11T07:57:50.699-07:00I have several problems with your conclusions. Gra...I have several problems with your conclusions. Granted I cannot argue with the evidence you have procured and stated, but your conclusion that the government should step in and instill one more law over our heads is throwing away every sense of freedom. It is giving more control to people we don't know, and who don't know us. It is risking everything that we hold dear. Vaccinations, car seats, etc, are all good things, but instead of enforcing them, the government should be in the business of educating. Because the government has overstepped its boundaries, the people of our country are becoming more apathatic and uneducated. Which is exactly what happened to the Roman Empire, and that leads to my second point. Secondly, we should NEVER, never disregard our history. It is in our history that we can learn. It is only modern arrogance that states that "we know better than they did." And it is also foolishness. The effects of spanking in my house have only resulted in less spankings. Which was the goal. My children don't have "close-calls" with cars in the street because I taught them before any kind of event like that could happen. They know to stay close to me, and to come to me when I call because of a few corrective spankings. Different situations and different children require different disciplines. And I will end on that. I am not going to defend myself or offer other explanations. But maybe if people were less apathatic and more educated they would be able to make informed decisions about the discipline in their own home. So for that, I commend you for offering up the information.Jennifer Ahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18145919073073692987noreply@blogger.com