Bad News for the A2K Anti-Spanking Lobby

It depends what you mean by "wrong"? If you mean can it have long-term adverse effects, yes it can be "wrong". One of the most consistent adverse effects appears to be the increased risk of aggressive behavior in the child,

As usual your long spiel presented with authority upon closer inspection turns out to be a lot of nothing, as well as reeks of dishonesty.

just about every prescription drug has increased risk of serious long term adverse effects, to include death, but I would never argue that taking them is wrong on that basis alone.

Saying that a longitudinal study of over 2500 children, each followed over 2 years, with statistically significant results indicating that spanking increases a child's aggressive behaviors is "a lot of nothing"--with no substantive critique of the study to support that comment--suggests you just can't acknowledge the negative effects of spanking on a child's development. And this particular study was very well designed and executed and corrected for methodological flaws in earlier studies which had found similar results.

I would be more interested in seeing a study that found that less frequent spankings were truly bad for you. A large percentage of those studied in the study you cited spanked their child more than once a month (or had done so in the last month) and I have little doubt that kids who get spanked all the time do indeed grow up more violent.

nearly half (45.6%) reported not spanking their 3-year-olds in the previous month, 27.9% reported spanking once or twice that month, and 26.5% reported spanking more than twice. As 5-year-olds, the children who had been spanked were more likely than the nonspanked to be defiant, demand immediate satisfaction of their wants and needs, become frustrated easily, have temper tantrums and lash out physically against other people or animals.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1983895,00.html

I would be more interested in seeing a study that found that less frequent spankings were truly bad for you.

Hitting children who are 3 or 4 years old is a whole different taco than disciplining a 7+ year old.

I'm not answering for Bill or anyone but myself but this equating "spanking" to beating, abuse or torture is simply ridiculous.

My mother used to hit us with a wooden spoon but she held back so much the "raps" weren't even painful. Yet we knew she was mad and had pushed her too far. We didn't want to push her to the point where she might really let loose with the spoon, so we stopped
the unruly behavior that angered her. This was of course after she peacefully told us to knock it off.

My father would occasionally spank us in the form of a mild cuff on the back of the head.
It didn't hurt so much as it shocked, and it did the trick.
We stopped whatever it was we were doing...after we ignored the verbal commands.

My parents were "enlightened liberals" in the sense of what that meant 50 years ago: Stevenson and Kennedy liberals.

My father made a point of talking to us like adults and encouraged us to disagree with him
when we talked about the news or history at the dinner table.

More times than not he ignored comments like "That's stupid Dad,"

or "You're completely wrong!"

Every once in a while though he didn't ignore them, and would lash out with a punch to the arm that would knock me off my chair. It was always me taking the blow because a) I had the smartest mouth, and b) My older brother got the seat at the table that was out of Dad's reach.

It was never predictable, it just happened. He was a drinker, but I could never detect a connection. Unlike my mother, my father was actually a nicer guy when he drank.

It would hurt like he'll and I would cry and bruise, but it was so infrequent and random that I can't say I ever felt like my father was a beater.

For what ever mad reason he exploded, he certainly wasn't spanking me or trying to correct my behavior. It was a brutal, angry reaction that obviously was wrong.

So, I know the difference between a spanking and a beating (even if it was a one punch beating).

I hit my daughter one time in her life and it was an involuntary reaction. She was 15 and I was trying to referee a fight between her and her mother when suddenly she shouted "I hate this ******* family!" Next thing I knew I had slapped her in the face.

I can't say it was a spanking, but it wasn't really a beating either. It stung, I'm sure but I had, without, thinking pulled back and it wasn't even half a swing. He cheek got a little rosy, but no finger marks or bruising of any kind. She was astonished because it was the first time I had ever spanked or hit her. It made a big impression, and she later apologized profusely. She also never said anything like that again (at least not in front of me).

I don't know what to call that action, because it wasn't premeditated. It just happened, but I didn't feel guilty about it and it certainly didn't scar my daughter physically or mentally.

The boys would get mild cuffs to the back of their head or the occasional Vulcan Death Grip,

whenever ( like me and my brother) they didn't listen to me or their mother. It always worked and again,
neither of them are the worse for it.

That, in my mind, is "spanking" and not beating or abuse. I can't say that I wasn't angry most of the time I spanked them,
but I obviously wasn't allowing my anger to overrule my reason as had the case with my father.

I feel a lot more guilty about some of the tongue lashings I gave my oldest son (who could test the patience of a saint,
and was defiance personified) than I do about the cuffing and grips. In fact I don't feel any guilt about them.

If there are parents out there who never spank or yell at their kids
and have wonderfully behaved little men and women, then God bless them:
They are either saints or their kids are Stepford children.

I sure as hell wasn't the perfect father, but when I see my adult children today,
I know my wife and I did something right..

You were using the word "hell" at 6 years old??!!

Those parents of yours must be been very progressive.

You were using the word "hell" at 6 years old??!!
Those parents of yours must be been very progressive.

which is what the research results offer

people who have assaulted a kid in the past and are trying to justify it and the anti-spankers just think that assaulting kids is disgusting.

video of a Texas judge whip his daughter and call it discipline, both parents were angry and out of control.

Of course that is the aim of the anti-spanking people on this group to turn the majority of parents into criminals because they do not care for spankings and wish to interfere with how the majority of people raised their own children by the force of the law.

zero evidence that there are anti-spanking people here who want to "criminalize" people who spank. You're now indulging the same kind of bullshit hysteria for which Chicken Little is famous.

The judge in Texas will very likely not be prosecuted because the statute of limitations has expired on his assault of his daughter.

You have absolutely no basis to assume that anyone here wants to make a criminal of a parent who spanks his or her child. You're indulging hysteria. Once

means that no court will ever examine whether or not it was an assault, or justifiable discipline on the part of the judge.

You have absolutely no basis to assume that anyone here wants to make a criminal of a parent who spanks his or her child.

Quote:

which is what the research results offer

Research that no rational person would give any credit is all that so far been offer on this thread.