Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Were you smacked (spanked) as a child - what do you think about it?

That people can't tell the difference between the two says a lot about them.

I was never physically abused by my parents, but rather verbally. Everytime I was hit I deserved it. I don't look back and wish I wasn't hit. I don't consider it abuse because it taught me lessons and the verbal abuse taught me how NOT to treat my son. My only regret is that I wish I didn't allow myself to believe I was stupid like my parents said I was. I got over it, but it wasn't until I was a teenager.

Dude gotta ask.WTF is with those diaper pics.

You shoulda just took their word on it!

"OK, Go pick a switch." That's what my mother and Grandma used to say. Richard Pryer used to have a funny in his act about the switch. He said that he pick a switch and say that he wouldn't do it anymore. Then he would throw his elbow in the air and run and jump in circles quoting his Grandma saying, "you bet your sweet little black a$$ you won't do it anymore". It make the calves of my legs sting just to think about it.

Your parents were right.

Remember Bill Cosby and - "all children have brain damage"?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyMSc97UksM

That's mean....

Was I spanked as a child? Yes and my brother and I are not anywhere the worse for wear because of it. Did we deserve the it the spanking I mean. Yep, I can honestly say we did.

Did I spank my three kids? Yes, but with an open hand and yes it was a great motivator not to do it again and yes they grew up to be find additions to Society, none of them had any behavior issues that required law enforcement intervention.

A Few years ago I had a discussion with one of our local county jailers on the subject and he related to me that in his profession he got to know a lot of inmates at his facility and that he could definitely tell who among them were spanked or Spocked as young ones.

It's called incontinence.

Maybe so, but MiddleFork Miner was still right!

The few I got that I DIDN'T deserve did not nearly make up for the ones I DIDN'T get that I DID deserve. (If that makes any sense.)

Yes, rarely but memorably, and I usually deserved it. With my own kids we used a small rod of some sort like a wooden spoon etc. and I learned one thing that would have improved the spankings I got as a child: don't discipline in anger. My Dad had to be furious before he would spank me.

With my own kids I did it with disappointment and grief that it needed doing and let the kid know that. Didn't have to spank very many times all together. My wife is asked sometimes to teach on raising kids and one of her counsels is to teach your child that no means no in any tone of voice. It can be done, though some parents don't believe that.

Outcomes are hard to measure. I have a master's degree, one long marriage, work that I enjoy, and have travelled widely --- all of which could be said by some psychopaths I'm sure.

Our three children have all graduated from college, one with a master's degree. All are responsible adults with good jobs who are raising well behaved children, and all three spank them. I dispaired with our oldest grandson who was the most strong willed rebellious little tot I've ever heard of, but his parent kept at the consistent spankings. He's now a remarkably mature responsibile fun loving 12 year old.

It seems to be working.

As others have said, there is a vast difference between child abuse and physically painful discipline.

One story: when our youngest started college, he had to take some kind of freshman orientation to life. By that time he had crewed on commercial fishing boats in the Arctic, tree planting crews in northern Canada, a construction crew plus had played state championship level football. The subject of teenage rebellion came up in the frosh class and he was the only one in the room who had not rebelled to some extent. Everybody in the room turned to him and asked why he had not rebelled.

"My mother wouldn't let me," was his reply.

BC- I was. All 9 of my siblings were. My sons were.

So far, only two of us have spent a night (that's all) in jail. Mine was voluntary - I was passing through Pendleton, the bus station closed, and I was walking the streets until it reopened for my ride out, when the cops offered me a bed. Hell, they even left the door open..... good deal for both of us.

My son's was pure space case... long story... traffic related.... (them judges have no sense of humor when you fail to show up, even after paying the fine and thinking the matter was settled!)

Some years ago I was in a college class with a Liberal instructor, adamantly against corporal punishment. She made the case that virtually all criminal prisoners had been "abused" by corporal punishment.

Me, not being too smart, asked the class (all adults in their 30's or later), going for education credits, how many had been spanked in their youth. Every hand went up. Then I asked how many had ever spent a night in jail. Only my hand went up.

I didn't explain- figuring that was worth points!

I guess, for the most part anyway, I was a pretty good kid. I can only remember getting physically punished for my actions once, and that was with a switch. Yeah, I deserved it. My brother, on the other hand, was much more defiant than I was.

We had no problem doling out a spanking or two with our kids. I actually only remember spanking our daughter once. Our son was much like me as a youngster, he was more afraid to disappoint us than do something to get a spanking - I don't remember ever spanking him. All I had to do was look at our son and we "counted" at our daughter. They seem to have turned out OK albeit "progressive" - don't know where we went wrong.

As several have said, there is a huge difference between abuse and a corrective spanking. And it is different for each child and parent. But the parent needs to know where the line is.

When I was a kid, we had 'the Belt'. I don;t remember many occasions, but I deserved them all. My kids go the hand until they were 5 or 6 and by that time it was unneeded. Spanking were reserved for stuff that could have resulted in serious harm or the like, like when my son lit a fire in his bedroom wastebasket.

Furprick,


By not disciplineing your children with the proven method, you are abuseing them.

Only those without the mental capacity to raise a child beat them.

I was spanked, mostly by mom. Wooden spoon when I was really asking for it. Dad usually got me by the back of my neck with a thumb and middle finger (the "Spock" as someone put it) so as to have my complete attention when he decided a correction was necessary. I deserved more of them than I got.

Daughter is just one now, if she earns a spanking I suspect she'll get it from either of us.

Spanking aren't beating. My enormous mental capacity says so.