How to choose between – to spank or not to spank
From ArticleWorld
To choose between – to spank or not to spank is a dilemma that most parents of young children face at one time or another. Many experts hold that spanking a child, if done correctly, is not harmful and in many cases is actually helpful. Parents control their children and stop them behaving in a manner that is ‘unacceptable’ through many ways and spanking is just one way out of many. Corrective spanking follows certain rules and there are ways to spank a child appropriately. Here’s how to do it if it has to be done at all.
[edit]
A few suggestions
- Spanking, experts hold, is a way to put an abrupt stop to a certain behavior of the child that is unacceptable. Spanking may be explained as one open handed slap to the bottom of a child that conveys ‘stop’ and ‘listen’. The purpose of spanking should not be to humiliate the child.
- Spanking if followed immediately with a reprimand is more effective. This is truer if the child is a toddler of two or three years. At that age, just spanking might confuse the child, but if it followed by the order of – ‘go to your room and stay there till I call you’ – will reinforce the effect of the slapped bottom.
- Spanking should instantly follow the unacceptable behavior. A toddler with a short attention span will forget what the punishment is about if you rant and rave and show anger and then spank.
- Spanking is not the last resort. If frequent spanking does not stop a child’s bad behavior then spanking is not the answer. You need to look further into what prompts the child’s behavior and then deal with it.
[edit]
Do’s
- Spanking should not be meted out more than once a week to toddlers and not more than once a month to older children. Spanking has no effect on children older than 10 years of age.
[edit]
Don’ts
- Don’t ever spank the child in public, it humiliates the child and robs the spanking of its real message.
- Never spank a child in a rage or when you are angry. You should use spanking as a correctional tool for your child not as a catharsis for yourself.