So a couple days ago we noticed a little discussion going on on Deals.Woot about spanking, and I thought it would be an interesting topic to get the conversation going here.
Growing up, I was spanked, but very rarely. In fact, I can only recall two times. It was the threat of being spanked that kept me in line. My older brothers got spanked a lot more often than I did. I think by the time I was old enough to reason, I learned very quickly not to do whatever it was they did that had resulted in the spanking. Discipline by proxy.
My husband and I have discussed whether or not to spank our son. His father was more than a little heavy-handed, so he's adamantly opposed to any physical form of discipline. In my mind, there is a big difference between spanking and abuse. Personally, I don't think a little tap on the butt every now and then is going to emotionally scar a child. Or will it?
There are some who would say that any sort of physical punishment inflicts emotional damage, and that it also teaches children that it's ok to resolve conflict with physical violence. And while some parents say that spanking works, others claim that spanking only serves to instill fear of punishment in a child instead of helping the child to understand what they are doing wrong.
Do you spank your child? Why or why not? If not, how do you discipline?
Photo by Flickr member 05com, used under a Creative Commons License.