I have to say that spanking is not something that is done out of anger, or as a stress relief for a worn out parent. Spanking is a form of discipline designed to make an immediate, ingrained point.
If you are spanking your child because you are angry all you are doing is destroying their trust in you. Now I understand the concept behind the whole empathetic parenting revolution that most new mom's have jumped on the bandwagon for, yelling at your child constantly, using physical intervention as a primary form of discipline and just generally being mean and disrespectful to your child is not a good way to teach life lessons to them. However, neither is explaining every single decision you make in a day to your arguing 3 year old.
To all the activists out there who are "dead set" against spanking a child. Have any of you ever tried to teach a puppy not to pee on the floor by talking nice and explaining that it wrecks your carpet to them? No, because it makes absolutely no sense to do so, not only do they not have a language but they have no reasoning skills.
Until a child develops reasoning skills, you have to use some form of discipline that immediately links undesirable consequences with dangerous actions. Otherwise, you end up with a child who thinks it's a game to run off the sidewalk onto a road, because "mom will just chase me and I'll get a time out".
Some behaviours need to be stopped immediately to avoid the consequences of learning the "hard way".
If you are spanking your child because you are angry all you are doing is destroying their trust in you. Now I understand the concept behind the whole empathetic parenting revolution that most new mom's have jumped on the bandwagon for, yelling at your child constantly, using physical intervention as a primary form of discipline and just generally being mean and disrespectful to your child is not a good way to teach life lessons to them. However, neither is explaining every single decision you make in a day to your arguing 3 year old.
To all the activists out there who are "dead set" against spanking a child. Have any of you ever tried to teach a puppy not to pee on the floor by talking nice and explaining that it wrecks your carpet to them? No, because it makes absolutely no sense to do so, not only do they not have a language but they have no reasoning skills.
Until a child develops reasoning skills, you have to use some form of discipline that immediately links undesirable consequences with dangerous actions. Otherwise, you end up with a child who thinks it's a game to run off the sidewalk onto a road, because "mom will just chase me and I'll get a time out".
Some behaviours need to be stopped immediately to avoid the consequences of learning the "hard way".