Spanking is Child Abuse

So, parents who spank. Yeah, gives me the shivers. Let me give you a bit of background here.

I was spanked as a child. Hard. With belts and wooden spoons. Did it make me behave better? Of course. I was terrified of my parents. My father in particular. Mom would tell me to wait until he came home and then he'd show up and spank me until my bottom hurt to sit down for two days.

What is child abuse? It is when you hurt your child, emotionally, sexually or physically, with or without the intention of making them afraid of you. It is manipulating the mind. The body. The very soul of your little one.

I'm a mom myself now. I never spank. I have two children, a boy and a girl. For the purposes of this blog, we'll call them Billy and Suzy. Nice standard names. None of those cutesy "Sweetiepie" or "Little Prince" here. That's a topic for another post. Right now, let's look at spanking.

First, spanking is cruel. What are you trying to accomplish? Having a child afraid of you? Congratulations, you big lout, you. You've just proven that you can best a five year old. Big whoop.

Second, how does hitting a child teach him to respond rationally? He hit his sister, so you spank him. Hello, people! That's STUPID.

"Don't hit your sister! So you remember, I'm going to hit you. Do as I say, not as I do!"

Wrong, wrong, wrong. That's not how we raise a responsible member of society. That's how we turn children into violent offenders who shoot up their schoolmates because they think that's how it's done. If hitting works, then maybe shooting is better. Yes? No?

Spanking. Don't do it.