In article ,
enlightened us with...

kaeli enlightened us with:

Discipline has a lot more to it than hitting.

Very true, never said there wasn't a lot more to it.


No, but you said

"Spanking (not beating) a child is not child abuse. It's called
discipline"

which to me implied that to not spank is to not discipline. Which simply
isn't true at all. I apologize if that wasn't what you meant.


And plenty have been raised with spankings and have gone on to the same
things as you and your family. But spanking a child doesn't make you a
child abuser, not even close to it.


What is your definition of spanking?
To me, spanking is NOT a little, light crack on the behind. That is IMO
unnecessary, but not abuse.
Spanking, to me, is putting the kid over your knee and repeatedly
striking the child with your hand or an object. THAT is abusive.
To me, it is also abuse to strike a child anywhere on the head or face,
even once.

There are much better ways to discipline
a child (or an animal) than to hit it.

I didn't mention anything about hitting an animal, my response was
solely to the child abuse comment.


I was generalizing. However, does that mean you think it's okay to hit a
child, but not an animal?


And I know some (most) of my friends who got hit that didn't end up in
any trouble at all, it goes both ways.

I'm sure it does. Most things do. My point was spanking doesn't
necessarily make a good kid and not spanking doesn't necessarily make a
brat. If one can raise a good child without the need to hit it, why
would there be a reason to hit at all?


And my daughters have plenty of friends/peers in high school now, who's
parents don't believe in what they like to call corporal punishment,
(spanking). Some of them are rude nasty kids (more so then just teenage
attitudes). They are spoiled pampered brats that have no respect for
authority, but are damn good at fooling their parents into believing
that they are angels,

There are a lot of "yuppie" spoiled brats these days, but I think that
has nothing at all to do with spanking and everything to do with
parenting.

Love and compassion are two of the biggest components to raising a
child. But if one of my kids needed a good swat they got it and they
knew it.

I think that is a big difference here - a swat. Not a spanking. Not
hitting it over and over with your hand or an object. I don't think even
a swat is necessary, but it is not abuse.

They also knew/know that it never meant/means I didn't love
them any less. Nothing IMO is worse then being out in public
whether it be a Doctors office or the grocery store with someones kid
running around screaming and the parents saying "you need to stop or
you'll get a time out when we get home sweety" (or something along those
lines).

Oh, that is the WORST!
But, again, that's really about parenting. Those parents coddle and
plead and try to reason with a three year old. They act like it will
damage the child to hear "no" FCOL.
Nope, I was not allowed to act that way. No child should be. They become
spoiled, nasty adults.

Anyway my whole point was that spanking a child does not make you a
child abuser!


I think it does - but I also think I think of "spanking" differently
than you meant it.

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