Did your parents ever hit you as punishment?

Concerned Citizen wrote:

Here is the way it is wrote:

Nice response.

But not quite nice enough.

Parents are responsible for their children and have natural authority over them. Society has a similar authority over adults in terms of limiting unacceptable behaviors. Society can indeed ground adults or give them time outs. Society cannot beat them (at least civilized societies cannot).

Um . . . "society" can MURDER people for punishment!

Um... "Can" but that does not make it right (or civilized).

Nice try.

Once again, we find ourselves in a position where some relatively-young people in America in the 21st century have decided that they have more wisdom than the sum total of all human experience on the planet to this point.

Any of letsrun's resident anthropologists and social sciences have any idea if any other culture (besides very modern or post-modern western) has ever thought it uncivilized to use corporeal punishment on a child? (The nuns at my parochial elementary school in the 1970s sure hadn't studied that culture!!)

Here is the way it is wrote:

Concerned Citizen wrote:

Um . . . "society" can MURDER people for punishment!

Um... "Can" but that does not make it right (or civilized).

Nice try.

Your personal opinion doesn't make it wrong (or uncivilized). Nice try.

They hit me, but not as punishment

I was spanked as a child by both of my parents. I wouldn't say that it was all the time but wasn't infrequent. When I was little I was scared of my dad when he was angry because my mom would sick him on me when I didn't do what she wanted. My parents were young and my dad was really strong as a former 3 sport all-star. I was never a really bad kid (pretty good grades, played a couple sports, never stayed out too late) but I was mouthy. I questioned their decisions and I despised that instead of engaging with me verbally they brushed me off and when that didn't work my dad would hit me. I remember one time when I was around 10 that my dad picked me up by my shirt and slammed me up against a door, my feet danging 2 feet off the ground, spittle flying from his enraged face. I have no recollection of what I did to set this off but I can't think of anything deserving of this reaction. My dad also used to taunt me saying that I needed to shut up/stop talking or what ever it was I was doing wrong because I couldn't handle him (it was true, he was 6'1" 200 lbs and built like a defensive lineman). Since I'm a stubborn bastard this only pissed me off more and I would attack harder. All of this came to a head when I was 15 and my mom sicked my dad on me for watching a PG-13 movie she didn't approve of and after receiving the normal shit I got to a point of anger I've never since approached and tackled my dad to the ground with my 120 pound tiny runner frame. It was a horrible idea and wouldn't have worked had he not been surprised (and if my mom hadn't been there to calm him down). After that he never hit me again. I think he realized that that way of punishment didn't work with me. If I ever have kids I will never hit them.

Hey, there is a real difference between a beating and a spanking.

Like a wanking and a good root.

Don't mistake the two.

Saw a great movie tonight.

Dean Spanley. Recommended by the intellectuals - which I am. If you are, then you'll like it too.

I got several spankings, all before the age of 8. They were all from my father and were all preceded by a stern warning: if you don't stop that you're getting a spanking. He would always take me to another room to do it, and it was always for something that disrupting the family, not just an argument between him and me.

My mother on the other hand would give me long hissing lectures about how ashamed she was of me. I still remeber a lot of the things she said to me.

I don't see anything wrong with spanking as long as the parent is doing it with a level head.

A) Children learn best three things from their parents 1) their example, 2) their example and 3) their example. The example that is being taught through hitting kids is that violence is acceptable, especially coming from someone strong toward someone weak.

B) The educated class by and large does not exercise corporal punishment. The ignorant class does. Funny how the offspring of the educated class tend to grow up successful, productive citizens while the offspring of the ignorant class tend to grow up...ignorant, violent losers.

Hey, teach what you will.

unicyclemichael wrote:

I don't see anything wrong with spanking as long as the parent is doing it with a level head.

That's weird. Would you see anything wrong with someone stronger than you spanking you if they thought they saw you doing something wrong?

That's weird wrote:

That's weird. Would you see anything wrong with someone stronger than you spanking you if they thought they saw you doing something wrong?

This might be the stupidest post yet on this thread. Are you saying that you believe the right of a random guy on the street to punish another random guy on the street is the same as the right of a parent to punish their child? It's a parent's job to discipline their child. It is not the job of some random guy who is stronger than me to discipline me.

That's stupid wrote:

That's weird wrote:

That's weird. Would you see anything wrong with someone stronger than you spanking you if they thought they saw you doing something wrong?

This might be the stupidest post yet on this thread. Are you saying that you believe the right of a random guy on the street to punish another random guy on the street is the same as the right of a parent to punish their child? It's a parent's job to discipline their child. It is not the job of some random guy who is stronger than me to discipline me.

What I am suggesting, and what you seem to have a difficult time comprehending, is that this has nothing to do with the right to discipline and everything to do with violence inflicted on weaker individuals by stronger individuals.

The fact that people cloak this violence with terms of "discipline" is simply ignorance. Millions of kids are provided discipline without violence. Only the ignorant conflate the two.

You may want to educate yourself a bit about the effects of violence as a form of discipline before talking about notions of stupidity. Although, to be fair to you, you have demonstrated ignorance more than stupidity thus far.

Anyone interested might want to start here:

Miller, Alice (1983) For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence

That's weirder wrote:

What I am suggesting, and what you seem to have a difficult time comprehending, is that this has nothing to do with the right to discipline and everything to do with violence inflicted on weaker individuals by stronger individuals.

The fact that people cloak this violence with terms of "discipline" is simply ignorance. Millions of kids are provided discipline without violence. Only the ignorant conflate the two.

You may want to educate yourself a bit about the effects of violence as a form of discipline before talking about notions of stupidity. Although, to be fair to you, you have demonstrated ignorance more than stupidity thus far.

My claim is not that spanking is right. My claim is simply that your analogy is nonsense. And it is.

Parents don't spank enough. My neighbors 8 year old son is the one that does the hitting. He will go up and hit his dad in the balls. The dad then laughs and says,"ho ho ho son, you can't hurt me". Then then proceed to sit down and watch tv. Yeah, that kid is going to be a complete a-hole when he grows up.

Smelly wrote:

Parents don't spank enough. My neighbors 8 year old son is the one that does the hitting. He will go up and hit his dad in the balls. The dad then laughs and says,"ho ho ho son, you can't hurt me". Then then proceed to sit down and watch tv. Yeah, that kid is going to be a complete a-hole when he grows up.

Assuming that you are not trolling (wild assumption I suppose) the fact that your neighbor does not know how to raise a child in a reasonable fashion does not imply that "parents don't spank enough".

Please go back to logic 101 before posting again.

My mother just spanked me for posting ridiculous nonsense on LRC. I'm a little angry, but I suppose I deserved it.

My mother would spank me. I'm a typical black so I never met my father.

Only suitable for minors?:

Schoolchildrens' "spanking" related injuries (WARNING - These images may be deeply disturbing to some viewers. Do not open this page if children are present).

http://www.nospank.net/injuredkids.pdf

Reasonable and moderate? You decide.

(WARNING - This sound recording may be deeply disturbing to some listeners. Do not open this file if children are within listening range).

http://nospank.net/prj-006.wav

People used to think it was necessary to "spank" adult members of the community, college students, military trainees, and prisoners. In some countries they still do. In our country, it is considered assault and battery (sexual battery at that) if a person over the age of 18 is "spanked", but only if over the age of 18.

Recommended by professionals:

Plain Talk About Spanking

by Jordan Riak

http://www.nospank.net/pt2010.pdf

The Sexual Dangers of Spanking Children

by Tom Johnson

http://nospank.net/sdsc2.pdf

NO VITAL ORGANS THERE, So They Say

by Lesli Taylor MD and Adah Maurer PhD

http://nospank.net/taylor.htm