There is a fine line between abuse and discipline. Discipline is a parent’s reaction to misbehavior or disobedience. A child usually knows that if he/she fails to meet the parent’s expectations on behavior or obedience that he/she will be corrected and told why the action they did was wrong. Discipline is acted on with the child's best interest in mind. Child abuse is often unpredictable and extremely violent. Children who are abused often don't know what will set their parent off and they do not know why they are being hit. The rules, expectations, and consequences are not clear, and children do not know what will result in a physical assault or emotional abuse.
Mel Robbins [ The Author ] deliberately blurs the lines between child abuse and discipline in her article “ Spanking isn’t parenting; it;s child abuse”. Not only does the author use personal experiences to connect her point with those in question, but she does not portray herself as professional writer, due to her tone and ignorance within her writing, despite her credible ethos. The authors deafening opinions in relation to the topic dull her ability to reason, thus making her use only Red Herrings to prove her points, also the author only states one side of the facts, deliberately uses worst case scenarios, and uses random
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Adrian Peterson murdered his girlfriend's two year baby boy by whipping the baby to death. A little after a year ensuing the two year olds death, Peterson had beaten his four year old son with a stick causing cutting and bruising of various body parts ultimately resulting in the boys death (Robbins par.19 ). While this is an extremely effective article to provoke and open readers eyes about abuse, it hardly sums up her point of spanking. The author never differentiates the differences between abuse and discipline, and this is clearly an abuse situation, not a loving father teaching his
Peterson’s lashing out and beating of his son was not his first experience with abuse. In fact, Peterson himself had been subjected to strict beatings of the same nature, using tree branches or “switches” and belts, by both his parents throughout the course of his entire childhood (Gregorian, 2014). Peterson grew up in Palestine, Texas, where corporal punishment was not only allowed, but used plainly in school districts throughout the state. A childhood friend of Peterson, David Cummings, recounts a day while they were in elementary school where Peterson’s father beat him with a belt in front of 20 other classmates for misbehaving in school (Gregorian, 2014). Adrian’s mother, Bonita Jackson, who also agreed entirely with her husband’s view on corporal punishment, would also whip Adrian for misbehaving (Gregorian, 2014). His father continued to beat him well into his teens, until he was arrested for money laundering for a crack ring, causing him to spend several years in prison (Gregorian, 2014). When asked about these experiences, Peterson responded: “I have always believed the way my parents disciplined me has a great deal to do with the success I have enjoyed as a man.” Evidently, there is support that Peterson modeled the same techniques his parents used on him with the intention of disciplining his son. Social learning theory holds that victims of such abusive
What is child abuse? Child abuse is when a parent or caregiver, whether through action or failing to act, cause injury, death, emotional harm or risk of serious harm to a child. It happens every day, where a child is being abused. National Football League runner back Adrian Peterson was accused of abusing his 4-year-old son. “Peterson has said he never intended to harm his son and was only disciplining him in the way he had been as a child growing up in East Texas.” No one has the right to tell you how to chastise your child but, there are other ways to go about the situation. You may never mean to harm your children and the way you discipline them may be considered child abuse to others.
Swat! The entire store tries not to stare at the overwhelmed mother spanking her three-year-old whaling son. As if the screaming tantrum wasn't enough of a side show at the supermarket. This method, or technique perhaps, has been around for decades, even centuries. Generations have sat on grandpa’s lap and listened to the stories of picking their own switch or getting the belt after pulling off a devilish trick. So why then has it become a major controversy in the past few decades? The newest claim is that spanking and other forms of physical punishment can lead to increased aggression, antisocial behavior, physical injury and mental health problems for children. Brendan L. Smith uses many case studies and psychologists findings in his article “The Case Against Spanking” to suggest that parents refrain from physically punishing their children due to lasting harmful effects.
Our society allows police, council officials, and other busy bodies dictate how parents should raise their children. A scolding, smack in the face, and a spanking on the butt are all forms of punishment. A punishment is a tool used by parents to discipline their children for misbehavior. Abuse is a commonly thrown around term that offers an inflated meaning to punishment. bell hooks states in her article that a parent cannot “love” if they are “abusive.” Care for individuals’ actions is love; if a child is not reprimanded for bad behavior then the parent is further being abusive. Each and every parent loves their child and to have people dictate on how to raise their child is acceptable to a point. bell hooks deals an absolute, which is any form of physical punishment is abuse.
Spanking is an important aspect of a child’s social development and should not be considered an evil form of abuse. In her argument, Debra Saunders says that there is an obvious difference between beating a child and spanking a child, and parents know the boundary. Spanking is the most effective form of discipline when a child knows doing something is wrong, but the child does it anyway. A child who is properly disciplined through spanking is being taught how to control her or his impulses and how to deal with all types of authorities in future environments. Parents can control their child’s future behavior by using spanking in early childhood, because if...
Spanking a child is not against the law in most places. However, parents who use it in their homes are being accused of child abuse. The Chicago Tribune published an article that urged readers to report child abuse when they become aware of it. In the article “Child abuse in plain View” the author describes spanking as a type of abuse that happens behind closed doors (“Child abuse in plain View”). Like most critics of corporal punishment, the author is trying to link spanking to abuse. The author`s concern about abuse is a valid one. Abuse should be reported immediately. However, any attempt to define spanking as abuse is wrong. Spanking a child is not abuse. It is an effective way of discipline that helps guide the child into becoming a respectful and responsible person.
A parent’s right to spank their child has been an issue of great debate for a long time. On one side of the debate are people who feel that to strike a child in any way automatically constitutes abuse. The opposing side believes that parents are within their legal and, more importantly, their moral rights to discipline their child as they see fit. As one can imagine, the former are routinely portrayed to be overly humanistic and ultra-liberal, while the latter are almost always smeared as right-wing bible thumpers and uneducated miscreants.
The most obvious form of child abuse is physical abuse, which involves physical harm or injury to a child (Smith and Segal). While physical abuse can come through the form of neglect, inaction on the parent’s part is not the only issue. Other common examples of physical abuse include actions such as the following: Chocking, shoving, pinching, spitting, hair pulling, arm twisting, pushing into or pulling out of a car, banging someone’s head, pinning against a wall, punching, attacking, and even harming to the point of death. According to Dr. James Kent, there are four different categories of physical abuse; these categories are termed “flashpoint,” “spare the rod,” “you asked for it,” and “who needs it.” The term “flashpoint” refers to the parent’s need for psychotherapy to address the root of the problem. The “term spare the rod” refers to the parent’s need for help in learning alternative discipline methods. The term “you asked for it” refers to the parent’s need for help in actually managing the child’s behavior and the need to address the parent’s or parents’ lack of economic stability....
The use of spanking is one of the most controversial parenting practices and also one of the oldest, spanning throughout many generations. Spanking is a discipline method in which a supervising adult deliberately inflicts pain upon a child in response to a child’s unacceptable behaviour. Although spanking exists in nearly every country and family, its expression is heterogeneous. First of all the act of administering a spanking varies between families and cultures. As Gershoff (2002) pointed out, some parents plan when a spanking would be the most effective discipline whereas some parents spank impulsively (Holden, 2002). Parents also differ in their moods when delivering this controversial punishment, some parents are livid and others try and be loving and reason with the child. Another source of variation is the fact that spanking is often paired with other parenting behaviours such as, scolding, yelling, or perhaps raging and subsequently reasoning. A third source of variation concerns parental characteristics. Darling and Steinberg (1993) distinguished between the content of parental acts and the style in which it was administered (Holden, 2002). With all this variation researchers cannot definitively isolate the singular effects of spanking.
A common social problem that must be addressed is parents using physical discipline or spankings as a way to punish or correct their children. To spank your child means to hit them any place on their bodies to correct the bad behavior. Spanking is a serious issue because parents are not aware of the affects of physical discipline on a child. The laws in most states are that parents are allowed to beat their children but they may not break skin or leave a mark. Many people do not understand the danger of spanking children, it can be damaging not only physically but also mentally. This problem relates to my area of interest because I would like to work within the Child Welfare aspect of social work. I believe that this issue is
Many authorities and psychologists believe that spanking breaks a child's spirit and only leads to violence. They think that it causes the child to become depressed, angry or hostile and they have conducted many studies to prove these things. This type of harsh punishment occurs often, but it is called child abuse. There is a great difference between abusing a child and properly disciplining a child. "One is an act of love; the other is an act of hostility, and they are as different as night and day" (Dobson 35).
“Spanking Should Be Illegal” is a composition written by Dr. Kerby T. Alvy, the Founder and Executive Director of Center for the Improvement of Child Caring, and child p discussed the debate on if corporal punishment should be legalized. Dr. Alvy gives a brief overview of what corporal punishment is and what it consists of. In this article those who are against outlawing spanking use bible scriptures trying to make a distinction between abusive corporal punishments versus normal corporal punishments to rationalize their argument. While those in favor of the ban mentions the various studies that depicts the negative effects th...
They need fathers to whom they can look with respect rather than fear. Above all, they need example." (Riak, 1992 ) Proof of this may be the case of Adrian Peterson, halfback for the Minnesota Vikings Football Team, who last year was accused of beating his four year old child with a switch as a form of spanking, he chose not to spare the rod and he was charged with battery (Swanson, 2014 ) Indeed even those who think it is ok to spank, were appalled by what Adrian did to his child; he broke open the skin and left bruises.
Children are the future and child abuse prevents kids from growing up in a safe and healthy environment. Discipline is necessary in parenting however a line needs to be drawn where the discipline stops and the abuse begins. Any form of abuse is horrifyingly wrong and needs to cease to a stop. Children need to be protected from the monsters that hurt them. “1,545 children died as a result of abuse and neglect”. (Source F) There is no need for that many deaths. A child is a child, and that child deserves a happy life.
Secondly, physical abuse is purposely causing physical harm or injuries to a child. Being physically abused includes being hit, kicked, or shaken. Parents who are abusive to their children often claim that their abuse is a form of discipline. There is a significant difference in abusing your child and trying to show them discipline. The whole point of using discipline is to show a child right from wrong. It becomes physical abuse instead of discipline when your...