Spankings

I chose to give a speech on Spankings last Wednesday.  I chose this particular subject because it required me choose a position and support it.  It was very hard for me to prepare for this speech because I am "old school" and I was raised in a family that was accustomed to spankings, beatings, corporal punishment, butt whippings, or whatever title you choose to assign to this ancient "ART".  In my home, the hand, switch or belt were used.  For the longest time, when I looked back at this practice, I thought it to be acceptable as none of my sibblings were ever in trouble with the law, and we were raised to be respectable and to be of good character.

As I prepared for my speech, I found myself almost deciding to take a different position.  As I spanked the stuffing out of my teddy bear with the switch, and than with the belt, I imagined it to be me as a child.  I remember days that I would cry because my spirit had been broken, but I didn't realize that this was the issue at that time. I knew that I used to think " how can they say they love me but beat me this way". 

Instead in my speech I choose to acknowledge that the law in Virginia emphasizes that a parent is not supposed to spank you with unbridled passion to a point that it is considered abusive. I also talked about the fact that the law also scrutinizes cases more harshly, if the parent leaves the targeted area of the rear end.  The law also takes into consideration the amount of spankings, length of spankings and the "Weapon" of choice".

Parents should also consider spanking a child in a private area.  Spanking a child  in a public area, such as a Mall or School is very embarrassing and could be more harmful than helpful.  Also a parent shouldn't spank a child in front of their sibblings.   Discipline is a one on one affair, that should be handled with discretion and with LOVE. 

So, is it possible to Love your child and choose to use corporal punishment.  Yes.  As parents learn to stop using spankings as a way to relieve their pent up aggression after a long days work, and began to plan the discipline in a loving way to get a useful result, than discipline is issued with love. A parent should choose the amount of swattings, the length of the discipline and only use coporal punishment for really severe "maladies" which could have caused harm to the child's safety or health.    In other words, corporal punishment is the "Medicine" that is prescribed use for really egregious infractions.  The same way that a doctor use morphine for extreme pain, corporal punishment should be used for severe infractions.

That is my position for the time being.