Spanking, a solution or an addition to the problem?

AverageBro.com addressed this issue and I feel it warrants some thought.

It's easy for parents opposed to spanking to justify not using corporal punishment. The reason I hear most often is that it is illegal to strike an adult so why should it be any less so for a child- who is unable to defend themselves? On the other hand you have the people who truly think it's their right to physically beat a child unconscious. The opposition says that spanking is encouraging our children to violence. The pro spankers say the the reason these children are shooting up their classmates, teachers and even their parents is that they never got that good country ass whooping. The anti side says that children should not fear their parents. The pro side says a good amount of fear is a healthy preventative. So who is wrong?

This is a question that every parent has to answer for themselves. I can only give you my rationale, and I don't claim to be the perfect parent with the perfect child.
To my way of thinking spanking is a powerful tool when used effectively. It should be the last resort, and used sparingly. Which begs the question how soon is too soon? At what age is spanking appropriate? My theory is when a child is able to recognize what you mean when you say "no," then they are capable of comprehending the lesson you're trying to teach them. Ex: If you tell a child "no" and they have the sense to get mad and go and hit someone else- they understand the concept. If you tell a child no and they repeat what you said with the same inflection and tone, they may not have it down completely. If a child has a vocabulary of more than 10 words and uses them in the appropriate context, they know what "no" means, unless of course they are never told "no." It really comes down to knowing your child but at the same time give the kid some credit, babies aren't stupid and neither are toddlers. Children's attention spans are short, if you see them sticking a fork into an electrical outlet and you tell them "no" and they do it again, the child is requiring some drastic action to make the connection between that fork, the outlet, and the word "no." And do you really want to run the risk of the child ignoring you and waking up in the middle of the night and doing it? Because on the chance that the child does manage to electrocute his or herself, who's the dumbass? I mean it can't be the child because they never learned the lesson, it's the person who failed to teach them that lesson in an effective manner. I'm not saying that you have to beat a child to get them to behave or follow directions. I'm saying if your methods aren't working you need to try something else before you end up with a bigger problem.

Last year there was a case where a family was kicked off of an airplane because their child was throwing a tantrum and would not sit down and as a result the plane was unable to take off. The parents were very angry that the airline removed them from the flight and claimed they were treated unfairly. There were 100 some odd other passengers who's flights were delayed while the parents allowed this child to have the run of the plane, so I think they were the ones who should be upset. Who knows how many connections were missed while these fools sat and watched their little girl disrupt the scheduled flight. The airline refunded their tickets, flew them home for free, AND offered them a free trip anywhere they wanted to go and these clowns went on national television whining that they would never fly with that air line again. Are we living in a dream world people? Frankly, these parents are lucky I don't work for the airline because they would have been charged for the inconvenience of the other passengers, they would have been paying for hotel rooms for all of the people who missed their connecting flights because of this incident and finally they would be banned from flying with my airline. I probably would have also sent their pictures to other airlines with a warning(similar to that bad check list some places have.) Maybe after all of that they would have understood the gravity of the situation. They were not the victims, they obviously allow the child to behave that way at home so why would they think that on a plane she would react differently. Here's the part they didn't tell you, this was not the child's first flight, they had flown to Florida a few days before without incident.

Now when this subject was brought up after it happened in a group that I am no longer a member of parents used excuses like, "well, there's nothing you can do when a child goes into a full blown tantrum" I have to call bullshit, why would you let your child get into a full blown tantrum in the first place. My daughter tried it once at around 2 years old- she didn't like my response and never did it again- plainly put I tagged her butt the first time and we never had a repeat performance. I think it all boils down to consistency. These parents obviously allowed the behavior at home and couldn't figure out how to rein it in on the plane. And the child really wasn't in the wrong, she was behaving the same way she does at home. How can she be expected to understand that when Mommy and Daddy said "stop it and sit down, " that they actually meant it, acting out the way she did got her what she wanted at home why wouldn't it work on the plane? This isn't just about spanking, had the parents consistently given her the same punishment regardless of what it was at home when she acted out she would've known not to do it on the plane. I think this is a mistake that many parents make, "I'll just let her do it this time," the problem comes in when Mommy isn't in the mood to deal with this same behavior she let slide yesterday- then the child is confused and I think this is probably how a lot if instances of child abuse begin. We as parents have to decide what we're going to put up with and if we decide to let it slide we have to be prepared for the days when we aren't going to want to hear the constant whining or begging after having said "no" three or four times. We have to hold ourselves accountable for the situations we set up for ourselves, don't be mad at the child because yesterday you told him no and then after 15 minutes of constant whining you gave it to him anyway. You're training the child to manipulate you, why get mad when they do it?