Conditional Spank

“Physical punishment of children: Can we continue to accept the status quo?” by Kim Oates is a scholarly source found in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health. The author of this journal argues that discipline with physical punishment is not only inefficient, but it also causes problems in the emotional and behavioral development of children. He follows by providing practical forms of disciplining such as: removing privileges, teaching by example, having constant supervision, setting appropriate rules, and being consistent. Kim Oates states that those parents who use physical punishment to discipline their children, likely experienced it during their childhood and are usually unaware of these other methods of discipline. Oates included

Parents should eliminate the use of physical punishment as a form of reinforcement for children because it could possibly lead into the act of child abuse; instead, parents should try alternate methods for teaching children acceptable behavior.

Every human being has been disciplined at some point of their life. The term discipline can be defined as to teach knowledge and skills; however, it is often equated to punish and control in parenthood. The different ways to discipline a child has been a hot subject since the early times of the biblical period. Many states in the United States had created laws to protect children from child abuse. In the last decade child abuse has been on a rapidly growing issue. The goal of parenting is to provide a child with the necessaries and emotional care to further their physical, emotional and social devolvement. This can be a challenging task to meet because every parent has their own discipline method to get their child fit for the real world, so they can be successful in life. The five discipline methods are time out, Logical Consequences, Natural Consequences, Withholding Privilege, and disciplinary spanking. Although many parents believe that disciplinary spanking is the best discipline method for a child, but many studies shown that it should not be practiced due to acting out of rage and can have future problems in a child adulthood.

A recent study shows 70 percent of parents believe it is right to discipline a child through physical means. Most commonly, parents will spank their children but being hit with things like belts or other objects happens as well. Parenting methods haven’t changed much with time and discipline in similar no matter the country. With more studies out to find the most effective method of parenting and discipline it’s coming to attention whether or not physical harm is the best way to teach children. Parents want what is best for their children, so it is important to constantly bring up and question methods commonly accepted in the past. One method that is becoming more controversial is spanking children. Though it is still considered normal to do, it is gaining more traction and more studies are being done to find the problems it causes. Checking on parenting methods can be difficult as everyone is raised differently. It is also difficult to test which forms of punishment lead to certain outcomes. However, there is a trend of negative effects from hitting. Gershoff acknowledges, “several national professional organizations have called on parents to abandon spanking as a child rearing practice and for professionals to recommend disciplinary alternatives to spanking.” Spanking children is a terrible discipline method as it has negative effects.

One very simple word that describes discipline is training. A child is not born with the knowledge of what is acceptable or expected. A parent must invest their own time and patience while showing love and exemplary behavior while molding their children into becoming well behaved (Child Abuse vs. Discipline). Being a parent is a hard enough job already, but when it comes to being a parent having to discipline your child, it becomes much harder. It takes time for a child to learn and process new behaviors, and this is a reason a parent must not have a short fuse when it comes to discipling their children.

For example: if a child decides to do drugs or physically harm someone, then they should get a spanking or a harsh scolding accompanied by a week of restriction on things they enjoy. Luscombe includes a quote involving the alternative punishments to spanking being more effective than spanking (par. 9). I normally agree with this, however I would add that it also depends on the child and their attitudes after the punishment has occurred. For instance, if a parent was to eliminate one of the stars on “The Star Chart,” and the child’s response was, “I don’t care,” then the parent would have to apply harsher punishments until the child has changed their attitude towards the punishment. Luscombe also includes information on the negative effects physical punishment may have on children, which should be taken into account when disciplining (par. 5).

For many years, discipline was and still is a grey line. By 2000, Studies were showing major associations between physical punishment and mental health, physical injury, parent-child relationships and family violence in adulthood. This led many countries to take action against violent punishments. Therefore, countries banned domestic violence after they decided that gentle discipline is the best method to raise a kid. On the other hand, many parents are reluctant to leave their physical ways of discipline. These techniques come from cultural, and religious beliefs that have been rooted in the parents. The parents continue to use violence as a way to discipline their kids, claiming that it is more efficient than gentle and soft methods of discipline.

One report shows that “physical punishment doesn’t improve children’s behavior in the long term.” Spanking your kids leads to many negative outcomes including mental health problems. There is even a greater risk for kids to have a serious injury when they are physically abused (“Discipline vs. Abuse”, 2016). Parents are likely to hit when they are angry. Being angry makes people go crazy. Parents could only mean to hit the kid a little, but end up really hurting the kid because they were angry.

Yelling in public, crying over the smallest things, throwing a tantrum every five minutes; all these things have the same solution, which is spanking. People think spanking is a way to raise their children. Spanking is used among parents to teach their children a lesson if they act in a way they are not supposed to act. Some parents use spanking as a way to discipline, a way to teach the child a lesson, or it can be a natural thing in their household. The method of spanking as child rearing has caused some controversy about whether spanking negatively influence a child’s future behaviors and actions. The practice of spanking can later reflect their violent behavior as they get older. Children can easily misunderstand the message behind spanking and unknowingly use it the same way as their parents. Children can, therefore, use the method of spanking toward their new upcoming urge for violence or bad behavior. All of their future actions are now reflecting what they learned in their few years as a baby; they have learned the pain and method of spanking. It is only natural for them to use what they learned in their future. While the method of spanking for child rearing is used among many families, it is important to know whether this practice of spanking is effective in a beneficial way or if it is a definite way to create a child who has a violent behavior. It is better to know whether spanking is favorable in a child’s rearing years, rather than to use the

Ninety-five percent of all toddlers in the United States have been physically disciplined at some point in their short lives (Magnuson, & Waldfogel, 2005). There exists a conflicting message from our country’s systems around how we protect and rear our children. Physical forms of discipline including, “hitting or slapping, spanking, hitting with an object, or other forms of physical contact [for behavior modification]” (Magnuson, & Waldfogel, 2005, p. 178), are not allowed in non-parental settings such as daycare, schools, and children’s programming and yet the majority of our country’s parents have at some point or are currently spanking their children in the homes. Numerous studies have been conducted linking the use of physical discipline

Many people, ages forty or older, grew up in a household where parents disciplined. The two types of discipline was in the form of spanking or Time out. Spanking or Timeout tend to be a structured way of letting a child know that he/she has done something wrong. Many parents used these forms of punishment as a deterrent hoping the child would not make the same mistake twice but instead succeed. The question of what is the best way to discipline depends on what a parent experienced as a child. Different disciplinary can have a huge impact on how successful a child is in the future.

The stresses of parenting are often times hard and relentless. With this in mind, many parents try their best to deal with those stresses and make the best of raising their children. This often-times requires disciplining, in order to end and/or curb bad behavior. Corporal punishment is one of these forms of discipline. According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, corporal punishment is “punishment inflicted on a person's body” ("Corporal Punishment"). The most common form of corporal punishment is spanking which is often used to deal with child rearing or bad behavior (Knox and Brouwer 341-342). According to American Academy of Pediatrics, upwards of 90% of Americans spank their children infrequently (American Academy of Pediatrics 725). Furthermore,

One of the major roles of a parent is to correctly discipline their child to teach them what is right, what is wrong, and that they aren’t the boss. The most traditional ways of showing children they aren’t in control include: paddling (or any other object used to strike), slapping, pinching, whipping, and spanking. Parents use these methods to show dominance and that they are the authority figure of the household. Spanking is by far the most commonly used method amongst parents in today’s society. It gives parents the ability to instantly correct misbehavior and further show their children what is and isn’t accepted. Creating better behavior in the future and making the child less likely to continue the bad acts. It is even stated in the Bible Proverbs 22:15 “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him”. However, there are much better ways of discipline that don’t include physical touch, and they can still show the child you are in charge and have the

Discipline is one of the basic things a child learns from his parents before he or she faces the outside world to learn more about life as a whole. Teaching this trait can depend on how the parent shows it to their child and how they explain the importance of having this trait both in and out of their homes. Misbehaving children cannot be avoided as they are curious little beings and they have a tendency to explore. But there are some parents, even teachers, who do not tolerate misbehaving and they resort to corporal punishments such as spanking to make sure the child never forgets how painful it is to misbehave as they will remember the punishment entailed to it and become more disciplined. However, not all children would understand the

Children are like flowers, if well taken care of they will bloom. If ignored or tortured, they will wither and die. Child discipline is one of the most important elements of successful parenting. Today, many people have this notion that physical abuse is in no way a solution to helping children discern between right and wrong. Since generations children have been taught the art of discipline through physical punishment. Often this approach to disciplining has resulted in two outcomes, one is where the child becomes more tolerant and is willing to adhere to what he/she has been told, or the other which more often results in children developing a sense of anguish and desire to revolt.