Val... i know the episode well.... adn it being a different place and time and culture there is a lot of differences... as the wife of an now grown abused child and a foster/adopt mother any physical discipline is an absoulute no no. i like the phrase in Little Women that states "to hit and humiliate a child, is to teach them to hit and humiliate". I find that most of the abused children i see are abused because they're parents were abused/spanked as children. So naturally when a child is hit becasue his parents didnt like what he did, he learns to hit when someone does something he doesnt like. Its a generational thing... luckily my husband and his siblings have broken that trail of abuse... unfortunatly for thosands of other families it has not ended, and in some cases gotten worse. What realy ticks me off is the "spare the rod spoil the child" attidude.. which btw is NOT in the Bible, it says something about disciplining your kids but not physically abusing them.
Now to all those who think there is a difference between discipline and abuse... i guess that depends on the family. But in my state if you leave a mark, its abuse (in my eyes any physical discipline is abuse). There are millions of better ways to discipline children without hitting them. I'm not saying "spankers" deserve to have thier kids taken away.. i'm saying they need to learn other alternatives. most parents have the best of intentions.. but this is how i see it and is my opinion... also do you want your kids to do what you say out of love and respect or fear? if you dont want them to fear you then dont hit them, that only causes fear and resentment in the end. As for the spoiled kid.... prevention would have been teh best route.... but sense it was "to late" the best way to handle it was to make him give away what he treasured and start earning things back with good behavioru... studies show positive reinforcement is much more effective than physical punishment. _______________________________________________ WBMUTBB mailing list [email protected] http://mail.wbmutbb.com/mailman/listinfo/wbmutbb_wbmutbb.com http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
