To spank or not?

A new
study says people who were physically punished as
kids
were more likely to have mental or emotional problems.

It’s not physical or sexual abuse or neglect, but things
like slapping, shoving, or pushing that can cause serious
damage to kids.

Bill says his initial reaction to the study is just to
agree that spanking is probably not good.

“There is something to the idea of dad and mom get their
way
and prove that they’re right because they’re bigger than
you
and can hit harder than you.”

But as heard on Seattle’s Morning News, the study doesn’t
really point out the frequency. Bill, Kim, and Tom all
agree
that regular spanking or physical punishment might be more
harmful than a rare swat on the rear.

Without getting too scientific, Tom also says he’s
skeptical of the study only because it doesn’t point to a
cause and effect.

That said, Tom thinks a study like this is good to get
parents thinking about their methods for discipline. He
personally thinks “that spanking is the failure of
parenting. It’s always out of my frustration.”

Tom says in the rare occasion a spanking happened, he
always
realized later that he could have handled it better.

While Bill is determined not to spank his kids, he argues
he was spanked as a kid and he turned out alright. He and
his siblings were swatted for things like back talking,
putting himself or others in danger, or picking on
defenseless siblings.

Nowadays, parents seem to have more to hold over their
kids’ heads, things like Wii, Xbox, Kindle, and phones.
But Bill wonders if there won’t be a study soon suggesting
that bribing our kids to behave well is lazy parenting and
also does harm.

By Stephanie Klein, MyNorthwest.com Editor