The No Spank Bill: Should the Government Interfere with the Child Rearing Practices of Parents?
Okay, here is my argument. Why are you in everyone's business? Not trying to sound disrespectful or anything, but how can a woman who doesn't live in every California home sit there and draft a proposal punishing parents who actually take out the time to discipline their children?
I will agree that there are different forms of punishment and a variety of temperaments that exist in children. Some children may not need as much discipline and others may need a lot. There are children out there who have no fear of being spanked and some who will cry at the very word "spanking". I will also argue that any parent who spanks an infant needs to be prosecuted and any parent who takes out the time to try and talk sense into the head of a two year old who is misbehaving is in need of a CAT scan.
Spanking or physical abuse?
So, what is the problem? I personally believe that society has child abuse and discipline confused. Perhaps there are folks out there who believe that any parent who is disciplining their child with a little spanking is actually causing physical abuse instead of enforcing discipline. Then again, maybe there are individuals who honestly believe that when they spank their children for just about anything under the sun they are actually instilling good old fashion discipline when in fact they are really inflicting pain and causing physical abuse.
Would you say it is barbaric to spank a child as a form of discipline? Some people agree with this and others do not. According to Focus on the Family (focusonthefamily.com) corporal punishment is beneficial if it is done lovingly and properly. The web site states that it is best to use it infrequently and I personally agree with this. I believe that there is a time and place for everything. There is a time for a child to have a "time-out" session as an appropriate form of punishment where they can think about the cause and effect of their actions.
There are other times when a child should have something removed from them (such as a movie or toy) as a punishment for their crime. Then there are instances where spanking may play a better role in disciplining a child as opposed to the other methods. The proper punishment depends on the crime committed by the little rascal.
So now what?
As I had mentioned before there is some confusion between spanking and child abuse. As a result everyone should receive some education on the differences. At the same time, everyone has their own beliefs, ethics and morals when it comes to disciplining children. We need to respect this because no matter how you look at it, every child needs discipline; rather it's in the form of a punishment or a spanking. Believe it or not, a child is not born with a huge amount of maturity. I know this is hard to believe but it is the honest to goodness truth! Show me a very mature toddler who doesn't have temper tantrums and cries for any and everything and I will eat a sweet potato pie everyday! But let's be honest here, the issue of spanking is a personal and moral issue that is between the parent and child alone. Having the government intervene in the way a parent disciplines their child is out of context.
I say to Sally Lieber and anyone else who wants to set ground rules on how to discipline children and make it a law to stay out of it! If you want to draft a proposal looking for signs of child abuse, by all means, go for it. But do not sit around all day trying to think of a uniform way for everyone to raise their child. It will not work. All you are doing is giving a child the power to say, "Mommy and daddy spanked me! Throw them in jail!" and quite frankly, that may not fly with some folks! Give some people an inch and they take a mile. A law may have one purpose and someone may run with it because they want it tailored to fit their needs. You know what I mean?
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- Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Mountain View, CA
11 Comments
Post a CommentIt is my personla oppinion that when it comes to parenting my children the government should stay out. It is bad enough that they dictate what they teach our children in schools, now they are entering my home. I do not believe in child abuse, but you have to acknoledge the fact that there are lines that should not be crossed in the household or for that matter in public. While growing up there were always the "passive" lines that warrented the "Time-out" method, but when that line got crossed to Corporal punishment, I knew what that line was and I knew the concequences. This is the same way I am raising my children. Now agreed that there is a such thing as abusive situations, that is why there are currently laws on the books to deal with these people. The only thing that I ask is just stay out of my home, if you want to raise my children as well as the rest of the children of the United States, get your own.
end of last sentence was cut off-
...(sexual, physical, and emotional abuse), but somehow when you are below a certain age, we say it is not.
I was spanked as a child in the so-called "loving"(gag), "Christian" non-angry way, which to me felt even more sadistic- how can someone coldly and impersonally hurt me until I cry, for not doing what they told me (or vice versa), and then tell me they love me? This is not just how I feel now, it is how I felt as a little girl when my mom would spank me. I knew it was barbaric then, and it hurt my heart most of all as well as creating shame and humiliation and physical hurt. Children are not property, they are people with the SAME feelings as you would have right now if someone came into your house and told you what to do, and if you didn't do it, made you bend over and hit your bottom until you cried as an adult. It is also sexual abuse. I was a whole person, with sexuality, as a very small child, as most children are. (I learned from adults very quickly that I was supposed to hide this) All of these things are recognized if you hit an adult on the bottom (sexual, physical, and em
I agree! I have 6 children and each one has had a different personality from birth and it may take a harsh look for one to get the message and the other a swat on the bottom to get the message across. Our purpose as a parent is to raise good God fearing adults who contribute to our society in a positive way.Thank you for keeping us informed .
unbelievable!!! a person attempting to draft and pass a law putting parents in jail and pay a hefty fine for disciplining their "own" kids. ms. lieber does'nt even have children nor the experience to raise a child and she has the nerve to even consider proposing this law. well, im not surprise,this is the same sally lieber who wants to abolish the depy. of juvenile justice formerly known as the ca.youth authority which houses hard core juvenile criminal gang memebers.ms leiber wants to remove these hard core juvenile convicts and placed them in a community based halfway -group home style housing in your neighborhood.these juvenile convicts called "wards" have raped,molested,killed,maimed and victimized the people of california because they were never spanked,disciplined or supervised by their parents.my god WHO ELECTED AND PUT MS.LIEBER IN OFFICE? it is obvious that ms. lieber has no idea what so ever. She needs to be recalled before she waste more of the taxpayers money .
I completely agree with you. I think that the parent should have the right to decide whether or not they should spank their child as a form of punishment. I think that sometimes there is a misconception of what constitutes "spanking". There is a difference between an open handed smak on the butt and a closed fist to any part of the child's body. Spanking is also not to be a form of embarassment and therefor should be done in the privacy oh the home, followed by the verbal lesson as to what they did was wrong and what is right. It shouldnt be done out of anger. My father would send me to the basement, calm down and give me a spanking, followed by the lesson. Spanking arent supposed to be something done all the time and if that is the case than I am not for it at all. Yet, when done properly I think it is very useful and children can learn a lot.
check out http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/139334/the_no_spank_bill_should_the_government.html?page=2
mom's family the contrast couldn't be any clearer. I do agree that we have to be careful with corporal punishment, but doesn't this bring up a larger issue, not so much of childhood discipline, but rather of parental domestic violence? The two are very different. Perhaps instead of taking this leap of law, we should concentrate on domestic violence awareness, ways to educate youth and america what it really is, and what to do about it...what do you think?
I have to disagree. I've had a lot of experience with abuse both verbal/borderline physcial, and I think that spanking is not always bad. i was abused by my dad, not my mom, but when i was young, my mom gave me all of maybe 10 spankings, and they were not out of anger but love, not thrashings, but light swats on my rear. Any issues i have today, i can assurdley let you know, are not from my mom's spankings but my dad's anger acted out on me. And my mom's family was always a very healthy setting for me to run to, and grow up in. They are all, with the exception of one aunt, very well off(not in money terms) and happy with wonderful families of their own. And they all underwent a few spankings from my grandparents, who have no history of any psychological/verbal/physical/sexual abuse. They are very loving and live to give their lives to others, nothing is more important to them then my family. When I see the contrast between my dad's broken family, what I underwent and my mom's f
seems that the end of my comment was cut off. The rest read "how do some find it acceptable to hit/spank a child/baby. It's not a parent's right, it's caveman behavior and it's just like the men and women out there that believe that women need smacked around to be put in their places and that there is still such a thing as "women's work" meaning the woman does the dishes, laundry, housework etc. Isn't it time we all accept that this way of thinking is from the dark ages and needs changed to help kids grow up healthier and happier and maybe then the crime rate will go down?