As a child, I remember my father threatening to spank me. I left my Barbie dolls out and he stood on one. He told me that I would never forget again, so I screamed at the top of my lungs. A neighbor telephoned the police; all because of the fear of a spanking. Parents should avoid spanking their children because of the physiological and psychological pain that a child endures from this form of punishment.
To commence, parents should avoid spanking their children because of the physiological consequences. Sufficient evidence exists in proving that spanking slows the cognitive development of children (Straus, 2011). Spanked children tend to do far worse on achievement tests than those whose parents used other forms of punishment (Straus, 2011). Because of the retardation in the cognitive development, spanked children must spend their entire lives catching up to their counterparts who did not receive such harsh punishment and cannot enjoy a quality childhood. Hitting children can cause back problems (Hunt, 2011). Shock waves travel up the spine and cause nerve damage (Hunt, 2011). If a parent disciplined his/her child out of love, it would not be with an expensive medical bill later on in life.
Parents who spank their children argue that spanking gets their children to stop the incorrect behavior quickly. In truth, spanking only a temporarily solves the issue because the children do not know why the action was incorrect, so they will repeat it (Pitzer, 2011). Children also learn a new lesson; smack someone when he/she cannot have his/her own way which proves that spanking is unorganized discipline (Pitzer, 2011).
Next, parents should avoid spanking their children because it lowers their self-esteem. Children believe that the...
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...unt, J. (2011). Disciplining your child. Retrieved November 22, 2011, from Natural Child: http://www.naturalchild.org/jan_hunt/tenreasons.html
Oppenheimer, D. (2011). To spank or not to spank. Retrieved November 22, 2011, from UT Texas: http://www.utexas.edu/know/20111/03/22/spanking/
Pitzer, Ronald. (2011). What about spanking?. Retrieved November 28, 2011, from University of Michigan: http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/familydevelopment/w00021.html
Straus, M. (2005). Children should never, ever be spanked no matter what the circumstances. Retrieved November 22, 2011, from Pub Pages: http://pubpages.unh.edu.as2/cp67 Children Should Never be Spanked.pd
Times, Family. (2011). Discipline: Help your children develop feelings of esteem. Retrieved November 28, 2011, from New Mexico State University: http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/family_times/family_times_4_ENG.pdf
Spanking could also teach children that it's all right to hit, and that it's all right to be hit and that could have a negative long term effect on the children. I
Spanking doesn’t allow children to learn the reasons why to act appropriately. When parents use physical punishment, such as spanking, to discipline their children, they do so in order to improve their child’s behavior. According to a report composed by a lead researcher in the field of pediatrics, spanking does not teach children the reason for why they are being punished or why their behavior was wrong. Spanking teaches children to act in a desired way only because of fear of being punished. Being a victim of spanking, I only feared the idea of being spanked, and that is why I changed my behavior for the time being. I did not actually understand the reasoning for why I was being punished. Spanked children do not understand the positive and important reasons for acting properly.
Nadine Block argues that spanking children is not a form of love or compassion, but rather an act of violence and disciplinary spanking should be an outlawed practice. Disciplinary spanking is a different thing than a depressed or angry parent spanking a child to relieve their mood. Spanking a child in order to remove the idea of performing an action known to the child to be unacceptable is something that every parent should do, and is not an act of abuse or violence. When used correctly, spanking children is a highly effective and loving response to unruly behavior, because the child learns how to behave and become an upstanding citizen (Dodson). If a child is not disciplined for improper actions, the child is more likely to develop behavior problems and illnesses such as ADHD, while a child who is properly disciplined is more likely to grow into a better-behaved individual (Shute).
...ginning of humanity. It worked then, and it works now. Critics have decided to re-define spanking as abuse. They would like for everyone to believe the propaganda. The truth is, however that spanking has its benefits. A little pain has positive long term results. Parents can expect a well mannered respectful adult to be the result. Parents should decide if they want to spank their children; not society. One parent’s choice of discipline has no value over another’s. The key thing to remember when it comes to discipline is to discipline out of love for the child. Never spank a child while angry. Explain to the child why the spanking has to be given. Afterwards, show some affection. This way the child will feel loved and understand reconciliation (Dobson). The child will have no feelings of resentment. When parents follow these steps, discipline will never be abuse.
Three reasons why people do not believe in spanking are spanking can cause harmful side effects, spanking is no more effective than other punishments, and spanking promotes violence in children. Some harmful side effects that could possibly be caused by spanking are children suffering from depression, being inferior in their school performance, or having problems later on in life. It is impossible to see side effects because they are not usually revealed immediately. People also believe that spanking cannot be proven to be more effective than any other punishment. They think parents can use other positive and nonviolent punishments to show children their actions were wrong without subjecting the children to the detrimental effects of spanking. Spanking can also be perceived as contradictory to teaching nonviolent behaviors to children. (1) It can reinforce negative memories and violence can be passed down through generations. A study that was published in a journal about child development was done with small children. It concluded that by the age of one, children that were spanked al...
Rosellini, Lynn. When To Spank. U.S. News and World Report. v. 124 no14 Apr. 13 ?98, p. 52-3+.
Hyman, Irwin A. The Case Against Spanking: How to Discipline Your Children Without Hitting. San Fransico: Jossey-Bass, 1997. Print.
Spanking has several effects on the children which build many opinions among the people. Researchers have shown many positive and negative sides of physical punishment. There are several people that agree with spanking their children and there are others who are against punishing the children. Many of the parents who spank their children believe that spanking is sometimes okay because they think it will make a positive effect on their behavior. Spanking is used to correct children’s behavior, but, many people think that instead of bettering the child’s behavior it makes it worse. Spanking has been a huge issue in the past decades. Many children have been physically abused and many others have never experienced any physical harm. However, several people have been fighting so that spanking becomes against the law and so that the children have more rights and security. On the other hand, there are other parents that want spanking to be legal because they believe spanking has helped them correcting the child's behavior.
Finally, we need to know more about the personal resources of parents that can lessen the incidence of spanking. It is found that spanking sharply decreases as the parent ages. Despite ideological motivations, parents can and should be trained to understand alternative strategies of discipline (Day 93).
Holden (2002) reviewed Gershoff’s (2002) meta-analyses of eighty-eight (88) studies and noted that there were both positive and negative outcomes associated with the punishment of spanking. According to Gershoff’s (2002) analysis, the one positive outcome was immediate compliance by the child (Holden, 2002). This result was found to be consistent in five (5) studies. Immediate compliance was defined as the child complying to the parents directive within five (5) seconds. In stark contrast, there were four (4) negative outcomes. The analysis showed a negative effect on the quality of the parent child relationship, the child’s mental health, the child’s perception of being a victim of physical child abuse, and also impacted aggression in adulthood (Holden, 2002).
First of all, spanking does not lead to violence. Our surrounding world and media do. "The average sixteen-year- old has watched 18,000 murders during his formative years, including a daily bombardment of stabbings, shootings, hangings, decapitations, and general dismemberment" (Meier 34). It seems unjust to blame parents who are trying to raise their children properly for today's violence. If a child touches a hot stove he does not become a more violent person because of it, he just learns not to do it again because he learned a valuable lesson from the pain (Meier 34).
The issue of spanking is whether it is justifiable or an act of child abuse. Some child specialists, such as Christine Walsh and Michael Boyle, argue that if a parent must administer a spanking, it should not be through anger and only as a last option when other forms of discipline have been deemed unsuccessful. They say that for a spanking to be instructive it must be...
Smith, B. L. (2012). The case against spanking. American Psychological Association, 43(4), 60. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/04/spanking.aspx
When I was a child, I could not remember a time when my parents spanked me. I asked my mom how she and my dad disciplined my three brothers and I, and she said she never spanked us. When we got into trouble we were sent to our room, and had privileges taken away. My mom also said that she can remember spanking my younger brother once, but left a bruise on his bottom, and she felt so bad that she never did it again.
As children grow up, they’re more than likely exposed to being disciplined in one way or another. “Surveys of parents show that 90 percent have used some form of physical punishment on their children” (Graziano 1). So therefore, we can all agree that when it comes down to being punished, parents more often than not resort to spanking their child(ren). That being said, many parents will readily agree that spanking a child should not be considered a form of child abuse. However, the question still stands: how far does the spanking have to go in order for it to be considered child abuse? Although some are convinced that there are better ways to discipline a child, there are others that maintain the idea that spanking is the best option for disciplinary action.