I don't have much to say on this subject that the accompanying article doesn't already say, so let me just drop in the link and add my thoughts:
http://tinyurl.com/dxy8cbh
I have found myself exempt from the issues in meetings and cities, though I hold that up to autism rather than being some sort of special superhuman. However, the violence and neglect against children is a sticking point that I have always held up as a system that DOES NOT WORK. Beating children does nothing to promote goodness or obedience. In a zealously Christian family with which I was once friends, they did not spank their first daughter but did their second and third. The parents wondered why their first daughter was honest and kind but the middle and youngest daughter would lie and shirk responsibility. They couldn't comprehend that hitting their daughters as punishment resulted in them wanting to avoid punishment.
Being hit doesn't teach you responsibility or how to be a good person; it only teaches children that making a mistake and owning up to it means you get hurt. I was raised that if I made a mistake or broke something it was my responsibility to fix it, make it right, or work to replace it or make up the value of what was lost.
If you want to teach children about responsibility, actually give them responsibility. Hitting them just means that if you're bigger and stronger you're automatically right.
Amen brother!! You speak the truth! If one is unable to think of another, more suitable way to get one's point across to a CHILD, then perhaps one should NOT be a parent?!
ReplyDeleteNot sure how to teach your child that scribbling on the walls with crayon is not the thing do? Can't figure out how to explain why this is unacceptable? No problem - just smack him! Your kid being a little to loud or whiny in the store? No need to crouch down to his level, look him in the eye, speak to him in a calm & soothing voice and explain how the shopping trip will be over in a few minutes etc.... why bother? Just smack his little bottom! He'll cry even louder now and not have a clue as to why you just hurt him, but hey, at least all the other shoppers will know that YOU are not going to put up with that type of behaviour and that YOU showed that little brat!!