spankings

To spank or not to spank…..is this a question? “Spare the rod and spoil the child” is in the Bible. So is “The rod of correction will drive Satan far from a child.” Well, all I have to say is Satan didn’t live on Futch Hill. We got ‘whuppin’s , and apparently they worked. No one in the family has done time, killed anybody in anger, or ended up on Jerry Springer. Spankings were not limited to your own children…they were sprinkled on whosoever was in the vicinity of evil. I guess the grown-ups figured that they would stamp out any influence a bad decision might have on the innocent ones surrounding the miscreant.
Back to the question. I think that there is a time and a place for spanking. There is also a way in which to do it, a happy medium between correction and abuse. A lot of people who don’t have kids have made the decision that no one should be spanked. A lot of people that have children who behave horribly agree with them. What it all boils down to is that sometimes, a good spanking is the only communication a child understands.
There is no other method that packs such a wollop when it comes to concentrating the regret and consternation of a bad act in a single space in time. When I was younger, my Daddy tried to take the talking route. He could make you feel terrible about what you had done, to the point I would get the belt, hand it to him, and beg him “Daddy, just spank me and get it over with!” It was better to pay the piper and know it was over than have that lingering guilt living with you for days. A spanking was painful but temporary, a moment you spent learning what consequences were about.
These days, kids simply do not respect their parents. They smart back, they berate until they get their way, and they do things without thinking about the consequences, because there are no consequences. My Granddaddy always said that cows and kids need fences to show we care about them. I never really thought about this until I had kids of my own. I discovered that kids feel safe if they know where play ends and trouble begins. They can expand their minds, push the limits, dream big, all within the confines of a world with limits, one carefully set to allow them to explore without getting too far out of their abilities. In some areas, no limits are set, but these are the life goal areas, not the ones that will send a tractor into a pond (another long story). Spanking is one way that parents can keep their kids in line.
Now, there are rules for the parents when it comes to spanking. I heard once that you should never spank your child when you are angry. I disagree. You should not spank your child when you are enraged, and out of control yourself. That is abuse. That is when you deserve to get your own butt kicked, and kicked good.