Poll: Corporal punishment acceptable?

[Vuljatar]

There's a difference between "Is it acceptable" and "should it be allowed".

Of course it should be allowed. It's none of the government's business unless it's outright, outrageous abuse.

But, it should not be socially acceptable.

I believe that spanking is very rarely appropriate, and anything worse than that is never, ever acceptable. I have no respect for people who use corporal punishment in any but the most extreme circumstances, and I look down on them. And I believe that society in general should do the same.

 

[DracoSuave]

It depends on the child. Some children do not respond to 'progressive measures of discipline.'

Others respond wonderfully.

Should you smack your kid every single day? Hell no.

Make it special, make it count. Then he'll understand that life has consequences, and if he fucks up he might experience some pain for it.

Guess what? The world works that way.

Teaching your child to live in some special place that the world does not conform to is not teaching your child anything useful.

And if you never need to smack your child? Good. Then don't.

But:

Never lose your temper on the child and smack him. Maintain control. This is where abuse begins to occur.

 

[Rolling Thunder]

No, I think the fact you think you should "A: Smack the child's mouth, if in the store
or B: take the child into the bathroom and give him/her a spanking" shows why not, it teaches the child that it's right to hurt people who are doing wrong and then they grow up and their children think that.

But it is right to hurt people who are doing wrong.

*Facepalm*

 

[Cowabungaa]

Depends on the child, depends on the situation. I, for one, never ever responded well (as in it had any proper effect) to corporal punishment, if anything it made things worse.

In general I don't understand corporal punishment for anything other than stopping a child in a flash with whatever he/she is doing and shouldn't be doing.

The simplest example of exactly that is when a kid is thrashing and shouting in a store, and after saying "be quiet" or something for the gazillionth time, it's quite ok to me to give the kid a slap on the back of the head just to make it clear that you really want him to stop. It's more something to get his/her attention with than a real punishment. Punishments are there to teach kids the consequences of their actions, using corporal punishment as a real punishment just instils fear in them.

Children need CP. My stepsons attend a school where paddling is permitted for poor grades, tardiness and skipping class, etc. I paddle them for more serious offences, usually no more than 8 pops to their clothed seat

And this is exactly one of those situations where CP is used as an actual punishment and is, to me, just worthless. Does paddling teach the kids "good grades are useful" or teach them what bad performance gets them? No of course not, your boss doesn't smack you when you're at work later in life. Paddling kids for poor grades does not teach them anything, it just instils fear.