I thought this was very interesting. What more are they going to tell us we can't do?http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,245218,00.html
My minister mentioned that during his sermon yesterday. I was shocked and appalled. I have a very strong-willed 2 1/2 yr old. She could care less if I take her toys away. Time-out barely bothers her. A lot of times, a spanking is the only thing that matters to her.
I agree with a law like this, though. It's about spanking a child under 4 yrs old. Outright 'wap-wap-wap-' spanking on a child that small isn't needed. NOW- what they are going to have to be careful of is not getting all bent out of shape at the parent who swats- one swat- the butt of a toddler reaching for the hot stove after being told not to. There's a big difference there, and they will need to find a way to differentiate. There was a story some time ago in our paper where a dad had spanked his little one -still in diapers- and left black and blue marks on its butt. If nuts would be sterile upon birth we wouldn't needs all this oversight...
No, Becky, I disagree. First of all, people will consider that "one swat" a "spank". And sometimes a child as young as three or four DOES need an actual "spanking", more than that "swat". If you don't, you'll have an out of control child on down the road. There will always be people who abuse children. They need to be dealt with. But I still don't want anyone telling me how I can or cannot discipline my child.
I don't see how they could enforce such a law, anyway. Don't they have larger issues out there to deal with??
Very good point. But if you had a child running out from behind a car in a parking lot and you gave them that "swat", I could see someone calling Children's Services on you.
A few years ago I had an incident with Joyce where she was mad at me for not buying something she wanted in the gas station so she refused to get in the van and was in fact running around it. Next thing I know I have the town's Police Chief standing beside us. He talked her into the van but at the same time told her he should let me have his belt!! I'm thinking "yeah, right, if I were to even spank her I would probably have been arrested!". I still hold it over her head about the time the PC had to make her get in the car!
We do not spank. We did in the past but not since we had a foster child whose father lost his temper while spanking his son and beat him black and blue from his waist down to the back of his knees. The child was 2 and a half. I know I would never do that to one of mine but that was just too much for me.
Our oldest was the only one we needed to spank. I say "needed to", because he would act worse and worse and worse, we'd try all the other things we could think of, and nothing would work. Then we would spank him, and it almost seemed like a relief to him almost. It was interesting. But then he'd be good as gold for some time. Beth, my mom was a nurse down in the Loma Linda (CA)Medical Center. They had a 2 year old come in with a crushed chest--ribs broken, lungs puctured, barely hanging on to life. Why? Because the dad was working on him "to be a man!" They were outside playing football, and the ball hit the boy and he cried. So daddy was shoving on him, and throwing the ball hard at him, so help him be a man! Aaaahhhhh! How could anyone do such a thing?!!!
There are many methods of discipline. All of them can be abused. None of them are effective on EVERY child. But spanking IS an option, and I believe we need to KEEP it an option. It is wrong for the government to take that option away from us. When you are dealing with a child who has been physically abused, spanking surely is NOT an option!
Since the toddler was hurt playinf football - perhaps we should ban football?! There will always be those who take things to the extreme - if we banned all those things instead of dealing with the perpetrators then no-one would be permitted to bo anything.
Years ago I worked at the telephone company and Bill was in daycare. The owner had a policy that when they talked to a child who had done something wrong they would face the child, get down at their level and hold the child's wrists so they had to face the worker. I told the lady not to do that with Bill because he had been abused and felt threatened if his hands were held like that and he would kick you. She said okay but she forgot or thought I didn't know what I was talking about. One day I went in to get him and she was limping. She said Bill had done something that she needed to talk to him about and she took him by both wrists and held him in front of her to talk to him and he hauled off and kicked the fire out of her leg! She seemed to want me to get upset with him and do something but I told her I was sorry it had happened but didn't she remember that I told her he would do just that? She never liked me very much after that. I have seen kids who thought a spanking was nothing and others who were traumatised by it. You have to know how to discipline each child individually in my opinion.
Rachael was one of those rare child that you could actually reason with at a young age! I did very little spanking with her. Faythe, on the other hand.... I was use to wlrking with Deaf children. With them, I would place my hand on the side of their face to make sure they were LOOKING at me when I spoke, or else they didn't "hear" me. So without thinking I one day tried to do it to a hearing kid "with an attitude". Boy, he flinched when I started to bring up my hand!!! I backed off right away, because I felt it was an error on MY part, not his!
They'd have to even define spanking. Is it the small swat I referred to? Is it with a hand or a belt? There's so much to this that I wonder if they realize what they started out there.
That is so true Jackie. I think the govrnment is far to invloved in our lives to begin with and for some big wig in office to tell me I can't spank MY CHILD if I feel it necessary is absurd and insulting.
I am not for any law telling parents how to raise there children. Not that every law would be awful, but all it takes is one to get passed, then those who think they know best would keep taking it a step further until we would have no say over our own children. I think this is just a huge glaring sign that our government is getting way too big. It is not their business how we discipline (not abuse) our children.
The government has no right to interefere with the raising of other people's children. People should discipline how they see fit. What works for some does not always work for others. Most people have the common sense to know the difference between a swat or two and abuse. We can not allow laws like this. California parents should be furious.
Well I will tell you ladies what happen to us a few years back. We were in good old Wally World shopping and were waiting in line to check out when my oldest wanted a candy bar her daddy told her no we were having lunch soon she got so mad she sat on the floor and throw a fit then started throwing candy bars all over the place. My dh picked her up and gave her a pat on the butt I mean pat she was still in diapers too. So, I know she could hardly feel it. She stop and stood there and said ok then. There was a older lady behind us and she got very upset and told my dh he shouldn't do it. I said do you have children she said no. I said then... and left it at that. During that time my dh was going through chemo treatments. Guess what the next day Social workers were at our door checking my dd over. Man some people can't even mind there own business. Nothing became of it. But, my dh felt bad about it and he wasn't feeling good at the time. Social workers checked her over good, our house and see if we were clean people it was just a pain more then anything.