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There's nothing wrong with spanking. I don't agree with using a belt, however. Parents that say they are afraid to discipline their children because of the threat of calling protective services- I don't buy that. For many, it's a lack of backbone. I told my daughter if she wants to go into Foster Care, go ahead and call.
I think the term "beating" is being bandied about without much attention to what it constitutes. From Google and its dictionary search:
beat: strike (a person or an animal) repeatedly and violently so as to hurt or injure them, usually with an implement such as a club or whip.
"a woman whose husband would frequently beat her after becoming drunk"
Spanking a child does not fall under that definition - unless we are in the business of redefining things to make innocuous actions seem more horrific? Most parents who spank their children do not do it to violently injure them, which is why they spank them. On their bottom.
Look what your definition says: To "strike (a person or animal) repeatedly so as to HURT or injure them."
Well guess what - if you spank your kid for the purpose of hurting them, it falls under the definition of a beating.
But more to the point, I've made mention several times of how I think it IS abuse when a weapon is used to administer a spanking. Well, the definition goes on to say, "especially with an implement such a club or whip."
So when a father pulls off his belt or grabs one of those thin hickory switches that literally whistle through the air with every strike - and then they do it repeatedly with the intent to hurt, guess what that is?
Yeah, it's a beating. A beating. Not a spanking. I know in this kind of discussion, the pro-spankers just love their euphemisms. The term "spanking" ends up referring to everything from giving a toddler a few thumps on his rump with an open hand to an enraged father literally flogging a kid dozens of times with a switch or belt. Yet none of the pro-spankers have thus far condemned the use of weapons to ensure the pain is worse - and using a weapon to spank with cannot be classified as anything else BUT a beating. It isn't "spanking."
If the goal is to cause physical pain, then you are beating the kid. It doesn't matter if you think you're just disciplining him or spanking him or teaching him a lesson - whatever words you wish to hide behind - the definition of "beating" clearly shows that striking someone repeatedly in order to hurt is rightfully called a "beating."
Nothing melodramatic about using a word appropriately.
Nothing melodramatic about using a word appropriately.
Language has often been misused and abused to make a point.
I think it boils down to how we now perceive certain actions and how severe they are. I can think of quite a few words in the English language (and others) that have been altered due to the public's changing perspective on certain issues.
Language has often been misused and abused to make a point.
I think it boils down to how we now perceive certain actions and how severe they are. I can think of quite a few words in the English language (and others) that have been altered due to the public's changing perspective on certain issues.
True, I don't think all spankings are beatings.
However, I will stand behind my belief that you can never "spank" a teen. It will always come down to a beating. Even in public schools that allow corporal punishment, the teachers don't use their hands. They get to use solid wood paddles - some drilled with holes specifically designed to make it hurt more.
That's a beating.
Period.
Even in a colloquial sense, that kind of a punishment is a beating. "Spanking" makes it sound almost cute, like a teacher bending a 210 lb. 18 year-old quarterback over her knee and thwacking him a few times on his bottom with the palm of her hand.
However, I will stand behind my belief that you can never "spank" a teen. It will always come down to a beating. Even in public schools that allow corporal punishment, the teachers don't use their hands. They get to use solid wood paddles - some drilled with holes specifically designed to make it hurt more.
That's a beating.
Period.
Even in a colloquial sense, that kind of a punishment is a beating. "Spanking" makes it sound almost cute, like a teacher bending a 210 lb. 18 year-old quarterback over her knee and thwacking him a few times on his bottom with the palm of her hand.
Heh. No. A beating is administered.
You are probably correct about beating teens. Though I can think of plenty of teens who could have benefited from merely being bent over the knee and lightly paddled in front of their peers ha ha! I don't think wooden paddles are that bad, though, if only swatted once or twice. But repeatedly with excessive force? That's starting to be a beating, there.
I remember having to wear a dunce cap once, for looking at someone else's paper. The pure shame of it all was enough to kick-start my non-existent social sense into realizing that there was something unacceptable about what I did - even if I was too young to understand why what I did (essentially solve a problem I was having on a test in 1st grade by seeing another students answer when we were both in line to ask the teacher a question - in my young mind self-reliance was not yet a social skill to be desired, I suppose) was bad for myself, and those around me.
It's that nebulous part of being little monsters where, if left to our own devices, we need guidance. Sometimes it was a dunce cap, sometimes it was a light spanking, etc.
Now, in all this - I DO make a big difference between an angry parent literally beating their child with the sole purpose of causing harm (thus, the definition) - rather than a light spanking that is meant to serve where common sense and reason can not yet prevail. There are abusive parents, and then there are parents. There have been some in the past 40 years, however, who were content to lump the two above examples under the same umbrella of that dreaded term "child abuse". I think it cheapens the one by elevating the other one. I dunnoooo..... I'm only human.
we have taken a hostile position against all discipline. any discipline we want to express is now focused on the victims of crimes whom we now feel are responsible for overreacting to wrong doings. the problem is any reaction to wrong doing is considered overreaction. that is why park rangers, police academy 9mm carrying trained peace officers-- fully armed, , ball up on the ground while skateboard thugs kick them in the head,-- for fear of being fired if they enforce the law. the kick in the head (pun intended) is that they will indeed be fired and sued if they do enforce the law.
If the goal is to cause physical pain, then you are beating the kid. It doesn't matter if you think you're just disciplining him or spanking him or teaching him a lesson - whatever words you wish to hide behind - the definition of "beating" clearly shows that striking someone repeatedly in order to hurt is rightfully called a "beating."
Nothing melodramatic about using a word appropriately.
In the same technical sense, vaccinating a child is "stabbing" them. That is completely consistent with the dictionary meaning. But normal people don't use language in that way unless they are trying to be misunderstood--or trying to convey a false impression.
Doesn't it boil down to one simple thing?
Isn't it teaching a child that it is acceptable to use physical means to govern behavior?
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