SPANKING

. A study on spanking was conducted that suggested low income families are more likely to use spanking for discipline tactics. Lisa Berlin, the study's lead author and research scientist at the Center for Child and family Policy at Duke University, also said that African-American children were spanked significantly more frequently than those from white and Mexican-American families.

In many children with stronger wills, however, time outs often do not prove effective, so sometimes the frustration leads parents and guardians to utilize more traditional methods of discipline, and this includes corporal punishment. Many religious households tend to believe the Bible, and in the book of Proverbs it states, “Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them” (Proverbs 13:24, NIV). Corporal punishment can be an effective way to discipline one's children as long as it's not excessive, because spanking is an effective way to teach children to understand that deliberate disobedience causes future pain.

However, raising kids is of course, a different relationship than between a husband and wife. Children do not have the ability to discern between right and wrong, and it is a guardian's responsibility to educate their child on their conduct until they become old enough and mature enough to make their own choices. This includes discipline or punishment, as appropriate, and this often should include minor pain and/or discomfort.
If an adult commits a crime or does something lawfully out of order, they have to deal with the pain of the consequences. For example, a jail sentence is a totally miserable experience. Having one's freedom completely taken away is very painful. To give another example, if an adult decides to have unsafe sexual intercourse, they have to deal with the pain and discomfort of possibly getting an STD, which can not only be painful and harmful, but sometimes even fatal. Children, of course cannot comprehend the pain and misery of incarceration, and even fewer can understand the concept of death until they reach a certain age, but children absolutely can comprehen

Instead of spanking, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends time outs. It would cause children to calm down and think about what they’ve done instead of physically causing them pain and avoiding the real problems. Also, parents may choose to discipline their children by using the following strategies:
• Loss of privileges
• Doing extra chores
• Behavior checklist
• Earlier bedtime Statistics:

I WILL CHECK INTO THAT QUESTION, AND I WILL GET BACK TO YOU.

Many people believe that by spanking our children we are teaching them to be bullies and to think that spanking leads to violent behavior in children. However, generations before have proven this theory flawed. Children of previous generations, including mine, were frequently terrified into conducting themselves appropriately from fear of the belt or switch, and in spite of all the spankings we received, none of the children I grew up with have become violent or forceful individuals, but have grown up to become decent members of society with respect for themselves and others. Sending children to "time out" simply doesn't work. Dr. Laura Markham's article “What's Wrong With Timeouts?” reported on a study which concluded that “timeouts are effective in getting toddlers to cooperate, but only temporarily. The children misbehaved more than children who weren’t disciplined with timeouts” (Markham). Time outs don't work because sending children to their room or into the corner doesn't actually persuade or convince children to fix their behavior, and it makes them feel like their parents

Children now even curse at their teachers, knowing that the worse thing that is going to happen to them is a timeout. Compare now to the olden days that schools were allowed to punish students corporally, the behavior of children in general was a lot better and children grew up with a lot more respect for teachers and other authority figures.

Spanking, if done properly has worked for generations and I will always feel it should be utilized if needed in child rearing. Children need to learn from a young age that deliberate disobedience can bring pain and discomfort, when children as well as later on in life and time outs and other forms of punishment do not enforce this concept like spanking does, if corporal punishment is utilized in a proper manner. If used the way that it's intended, spanking is a good resource that can and should be used by parents in the rearing of their children.