Spanking
Kaylee Larson
The dictionary definition of spanking is:
“An act of slapping, especially on the buttocks as a punishment for children.”
Is spanking a form of punishment or a form of abuse and what effects does spanking have on children? Spanking has been around forever. It is most likely an experience that your parents, grandparents, and great grandparents all share. It used to be acceptable to spank kinds in school, in fact, 19 states in the US still allow teachers and school staff to spank the students. If schools are still allowing spanking, then how can it Be a problem? How can a simple act of discipline become an act of abuse? According to a recent study people that were spanked as a child are more likely to be aggressive and deal with their anger in inappropriate ways, which makes since because people that are spanked were conditioned to thinking that hitting was ok because that’s what their parents would do to them. Spanking also has the ability to hinder relationships between the parent and his or her child. The child could in turn fear the parent because they may see the parent as someone who inflicts pain upon them. On the other hand, spanking may be a good tool for discipline because is the child is spanked once and doesn’t like it, chances are they will not repeat the same mistake twice.
There are many reasons why kids should not be spanked. People who have been spanked as a child are, like as listed in the first paragraph, more aggressive and may deal with their anger in inappropriate ways. On top of that, the child is more likely to suffer from a mental illness later in life. Most adults that were spanked as a kid may be unknowingly dealing with the consequences of their parents’ actions. A short tempered or poorly handled anger may be due to that person being spanked. Now obviously that is not always the case, but research has a stong case that spanking can and does in fact cause these behaviors in adults as they age. Spanking can also make your child fear you. There are many alternate ways of disciplining children such as timeout, taking away toys or special items, and many more. If spanking is not affective and the parent does it often and hard, it may develop into something more serious such as abuse.
Spanking is a gate way for abuse
Spanking can become abuse in many cases. One case where spanking can be abuse or lead to abuse is when the child does not learn from the mistakes, he or she made after no more than a couple of spankings. If the child does not learn by the spank then, you are just aimlessly hitting your child for no reason what so ever. Spanking can also be considered or lead to abuse when the parent of the child spanks him or her so hard that it leaves marks. Even if the child learns from the spank, it should never be so hard that it leaves a lasting mark or even a bruise. A lasting mark, scare, or bruise made by the parent is a sure sign of abuse and should be reported. Another scenario where spanking can become abuse is when the parent is constantly spanking the child even over very small and minute mistakes. While some spanking is effective and does work on some children, kids do learn and thrive by making mistakes and learning from them by active appropriate discipline and natural consequences.
Contrary to the paragraph above, spanking can be a very beneficial and great tool for when parents are disciplining their children. Using spanking as a rarity tool for discipline rather than a go to method is proven to work better opposed to automatically resorting to spanking as the primary form of discipline. Children who are not often spanked will most likely to be scared of being spanked again if they make that same mistake. Children whose parents use spanking as their primary source of discipline are more likely to repeat the same bad behaviors over and over again, because they know they will get spanked no matter what.
At what age should spanking stop? It’s not every day when you see a parent spanking their teenager, so at what age does it stop being socially acceptable to spank your child. Most parents stop spanking their kid before they get into kindergarten. If a child is spanked up all the way throughout elementary school and middle school, it is proven that the kid will have some innate fear response and may be more susceptible to feeling as if they can never make a mistake or else pain may be inflicted. Children who have been spanked may also have a hard time trusting and building a solid and healthy relationship with his or her mom or dad.
Most people have a very opinionated persona when going about the issue of spanking. This is a huge problem because 19 out of the 50 states in the United States of America still allow spanking in schools. That is close to 40% of the United States that still allow spanking in their schools. Weather you believe in spanking or not can be a huge influence on where you want to live, where you want your kids to grow up, and where you want them going to school. A parent who believes that spanking is a great form of discipline and is ok with having the school discipline their child in that same way, may want their child to go to a school in a state where spanking is permitted. Same goes for a parent who is against spanking, he or she may want their child attending a school in a state or district which spanking is not permitted. A student being spanked in school can be a proper tool of punishment if consent is given by either student or parent.
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