Did your parents ever hit you as punishment?

MMead wrote:

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.

Show me one instance of a person being charged with assault and battery for spanking an adult.

The photos in the PDF of spanking related injuries are clearly from something that goes beyond spanking in the sense that most sane people use the word. Nobody here is claiming that it isn't wrong to beat the crap out of a child. When we use the word "spank," we are talking about a swat on the butt, not beating a child black and blue. This is kind of like showing that giving kids time-out is wrong by showing the result of locking kids in the closet for hours at a time.

MMead wrote:

Most current research:...

Holy cow! An educated opinion here on LetsRun! What the heck are you doing here?

Just a thought for the pro-spanking crowd. Near as I can tell every pro-spanking argument that is brought up is also used in exactly the same manner to justify the spanking (beating - call it what you will) of women in a whole lot of societies. Perhaps these positions are equally right/wrong.

i was spanked as a child, and given "the belt". we would laugh at my mom when she hit us with the belt because she couldn't hit us hard enough to make us hurt. so then we'd get "wait until your father gets home". he would hit us hard, us being my brother and i. we were afraid of him. he'd rap us on the head with his knuckles sometimes and that would hurt too. and once he picked us up by the ears.

it taught me that hitting is ok, and that i wasn't ok. thankfully, i've unlearned those lessons, but that took a long time.

interestingly, years later when i was an adult, i mentioned at the dinner table about getting hit with the belt, and my parents both denied it. my brother was sitting there and i asked him to back me up, and he just hung his head and said he wasn't getting involved. talk about denial!

Yes, parents hit me. They gave me every opportunity to succeed, too.

I am nearly 40, pay them visits and acknowledge birthdays and holidays for duty's sake, but I'm still angry and they still can't figure out how. Thank god, for running or I'd have beaten down a bully or two in my life, even if it was in witnessing another being victimized.

Science says you will grow up not respecting people in power and authority if parents hit and that's exactly how I would describe myself. My brothers are exactly the same way.

I played along in college and in the workplace to "get along" - get my grades and the paycheck, but beneath my smile is so much vitriol I can't describe.

The first time you are hit over something completely stupid, you will question every authority over you throughout life, even institutions or any high concentration of power that pushes or shoves you.

I usually will shove back and I will make sure my assailant gets theirs.

Yes, parents hit me. They gave me every opportunity to succeed, too.

I am nearly 40, pay them visits and acknowledge birthdays and holidays for duty's sake, but I'm still angry and they still can't figure out how. Thank god, for running or I'd have beaten down a bully or two in my life, even if it was in witnessing another being victimized.

Science says you will grow up not respecting people in power and authority if parents hit and that's exactly how I would describe myself. My brothers are exactly the same way.

I played along in college and in the workplace to "get along" - get my grades and the paycheck, but beneath my smile is so much vitriol I can't describe.

The first time you are hit over something completely stupid, you will question every authority over you throughout life, even institutions or any high concentration of power that pushes or shoves you.

I usually will shove back and I will make sure my assailant gets theirs.

Yes, parents hit me. They gave me every opportunity to succeed, too.

I am nearly 40, pay them visits and acknowledge birthdays and holidays for duty's sake, but I'm still angry and they still can't figure out how. Thank god, for running or I'd have beaten down a bully or two in my life, even if it was in witnessing another being victimized.

Science says you will grow up not respecting people in power and authority if parents hit and that's exactly how I would describe myself. My brothers are exactly the same way.

I played along in college and in the workplace to "get along" - get my grades and the paycheck, but beneath my smile is so much vitriol I can't describe.

The first time you are hit over something completely stupid, you will question every authority over you throughout life, even institutions or any high concentration of power that pushes or shoves you.

I usually will shove back and I will make sure my assailant gets theirs.

My parents sometimes spanked me if I did something really wrong. There were 6 of us, so spankings actually happened pretty often. It was really hard, too. I don't agree with it, and they don't do it anymore, seeing as most of us are full-grown and it would be pretty weird to still do it to the ones that aren't full-grown. It always ended up in an emotional crying session with my dad trying to calm me down by having a conversation about the ways of the world among other stuff. It was really just a painful, emotional experience that was eventually resolved. Regardless, I don't think they believe in it anymore. My dad used a flat board for it, and it would always be one of the scariest moments of my life at the time. I'm pretty sure it contributed to some of my social awkwardness and emotional problems, if only partially, but of course that could be due to the other, more rare beatings that occurred when he was drunk and all of the weird stuff he did and said when he was drunk. It freaked me out for a long time, but all of that is past now and I have a good relationship with my dad. I think I have gotten rid of a lot of the emotional baggage that came with it, and my dad has changed a lot for the better. However, there will always be a part of it that stays with me that I can't change because it's in my personality. I'm fine with that, but I would never hit my kids. I think the push-ups thing is a good idea though. Maybe miles if you want to be really hard core.