Spanking Leads to Aggression, Sexual Problems

A new study suggests that spanking your children often may have long term negative effects. As someone whose butt was tanned periodically, I can say that it often did more to enrage me than anything else. I just don't think it was effective.

After reading through the results, I'm unconvinced about whether the spanking causes the problems, or whether kids who misbehave early in life are more likely to demonstrate these effects later. Or perhaps excessive spanking in the house is a sign of other emotional issues between parent and child. Perhaps they would still show these negative consequences even if the spanking events never took place.

What do you think?

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David
Co-Founder of DailyHealth.net

I think every kid is so individual! One kid may burst into tears at a disappointed tone of voice and the next kid needs serious waking up to get their attention. I agree that spanking should be used as rarely as possible. But sometimes they need an exclamation point to their lesson.

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~~~~Becky

~ ~ ~ "And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."
~ ~ ~ Anais Ain

not too long ago, we got kidlet's interim report card, and it showed that he had a LARGE number of assignments that haven't been handed in

now, you need to know that he is asked EVERY day 'do you have any homework to do?" and 'are you behind on any of your subjects?' and he catagorically says 'no'

well, i was livid with this report card and i blurted out 'you are totally useless!'

i broke his heart....... i ended up apologizing to him and explaining that i'm very disappointed with his report card because i KNOW he can do better than that!

it was good that we had a conversation about it, because he truly had been crying his heart out when hubby found him hiding in the basement, after i made that comment to him

do we need to spank him??? ......... good heavens NO, words can hurt just as much

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kate

That they can. And more...

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~~~~Becky

~ ~ ~ "And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."
~ ~ ~ Anais Ain

I reserve a spank for immediate attention things such as Sticking fingers in light sockets. If it is going to hurt him or someone else then yes. A drastic wake up call is in need. I haven't given Dominic a whack on the butt in several years. He just doesn't need it. Raising my voice is more than enough to strike the fear of God in to him.

I can't justify spanking other than that. I think most of the time parents spank out of anger. That the worse time to spank a child. You do nothing other than teach them to hit out of anger. Plus if you are angry you end up spanking to much or to hard.

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LeAnn

absolutely each child is different

at one point my son when younger got out of the car before it had completly come to a stop

I was very upset at him but resisted the impulse to hit out but calmly said 'You do that again I am going to slap you....hard'

and sure enough he did it again and I did slap him...hard he never did it again after that

I try never to do anything in anger it teaches children not to use self control but just to act without thought and with violence, but as Lzeisloft says sometimes very young children need quick retribution to stop them harming themselves.

I think that slapping a child's hand or leg to stop them doing something dangerous (especially when previously warned not to) is OK and necessary.

I have a friend who has lots of grandchildren and some are great people and some are little horrors. The great ones were kept firmly in line from a very young age and the horrors were allowed to get away with everything because their mother said "I can't punish them- they're too little". My friend is convinced that if you are prepared to smack a child when they are a toddler then you won't have to when they are older.

I think balance is the key. (difficult I know). Too little discipline is as bad as too much in the long term and what each child responds to is different. Some will respond to you simply saying "no" others are more stubborn.

What people need to remember though is NEVER hit a child's head or torso - you can cause severe damage very easily.