I guess I’m kinda’ pro-choice on spanking. I have never had to do it but I’m not against doing it. I’m not for child abuse. Some might say any physical striking of a child is abuse but I don’t think so.
Anyhoo, a New York judge just ruled in favor of a Dad who spanked his eight year old who cursed at an adult. I’ve got to tell you that I think a kid cursing at adults is pretty horrific and might be worth a red bottom.
Fox NY reports:
The state appellate court dismissed neglect charges against a Long Island father who spanked his 8-year old son for cursing at an adult, saying spanking did not constitute excessive punishment.
Criminal defense lawyer Arthur Aidala says the judge says as long as the punishment of spanking is within reason.
“The judge looks at the overall circumstances. There are so many children who unfortunately don’t have fathers around. Here you have a dad who cares and is trying to teach his boy a lesson, you don’t curse at adults, boom here’s a whack,” said Aidala.
Child psychologist Nava Silton is against corporal punishment of any kind.
“The problem with spanking is what you’re doing is you’re using a negative action and you’re reinforcing that as a way in which to deal with life’s issues. And so ideally what you want to do is you want to teach what the child so do instead. So you want to teach pro social alternatives actions that the children can take as opposed to using a negative action like spanking,” she said.
I’d like to know who brought charges against this father for spanking. The story doesn’t go into it.
One of the problems with kids is they seem to suffer from short-term memory. That’s why those long-term punishments don’t really work all that well. If a kid does something wrong the punishment needs to be swift for them to connect the two things. At least that’s the case with my kids.
I think if the government decides spanking is illegal you’re going to have the government taking away an awful lot of children.
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