?Is Spanking a Correct Tool for Punishment of Children?New or expecting parents have a lot to think about. For instance, what day care is theirchild going to attend, which of the 30 doctors offices that they visited are they going to pick,which babysitter, which crib will be the safest and most comfortable, and whether or not theyshould get a new alarm system placed in their home. The one thing that is constantly debated iswhether or not parents should spank their children. Every parent either has a firm view or is stillsearching for what is best for the child.
Rarely does anyone have an apathetic view on thissubject. The truth is that spanking children is necessary to communicate to them that they haveAt a day care in Irmo, South Carolina, the employees cannot spank the children. There is agirl there that works mostly with children that are about two years old. Some of them can speak afew words, but others can barely speak anything besides “no. ” The other day this employee wasplaying outside with them.
They have a big sandbox that the kids love to play in. Three boysnamed T. J. , Brandon, and Kevin were playing together. T. J.
and Brandon began throwing sand allover each other and Kevin. They had sand everywhere: in their hair, in their diapers, in their shirts,in their shoes and socks. No one likes to be the one who gets the sand thrown on them. So, Kevinwas crying while T.
J. and Brandon continued fighting. The employee yelled for them to stop and ifthey didn’t that she was going to put them into time out. The only reaction she got was that theypaused and then gave her a confused stare. Then, even as she was staring back at them, they justwent back to throwing sand everywhere.
So she yelled at them again and the same thing happened. So she put them in “time out” and they had no idea why they were being punished. These are notbad kids and it never hurt anyone to get a little sand on them. But when they are throwing iteverywhere and an innocent person is getting sand in his eyes, then it is time to stop. After theyhad been in time out for a while the employee went to them and asked if they were going to do itagain and made them apologize to Kevin.
It only took them a few minutes to begin doing the sameBrandon and T. J. are too young to understand what she was trying to communicate tothem through yelling and “time out” periods. If she had been able to lightly but firmly tap them ontheir hand or bottom while they were holding the shovel and about to throw the sand they wouldhave been able to understand that there are harsh(to them at least) punishments for doing a badthing. It is not their fault that they did not understand me; they are just too young to reason withand tell them why something is wrong.
Children understand physical pain but they do notunderstand reason. From the example above we can prove that children do not understand reason. In a home there was a wood stove that heated the whole house. One day cousin Shane came over.
Shane was told not to touch the stove because it was very hot. He nodded his head inunderstanding. An hour later Shane came running to his mother screaming! He had burned hiswhole hand on the stove. Even though someone had sat him down and explained to him not totouch the stove or it would hurt him, he still did not understand.
Shane never again even went nearthe stove. This is why reason does not work and connecting slight physical pain with doing wrongis something that a young child can grasp. People will argue that spanking is just a way for the parents to vent their anger while“abusing” the child. This is false if the parent is correcting the child properly. There is a bigdifference between abuse and correction.
The proper way to go about spanking children is; as soonas the parent finds out what the child has done, they should make sure that the child knows whathe or she has done wrong then send them to their room. This is to give both the child some timeto think about what they have done and the parent some time to cool down. Then when the parentis calm they should call the child down and once again explain what they did wrong and they spankthe child lightly but firmly. After the duty is done the parent should let the child know how muchthey love him or her. This will prevent the child from thinking the parent hates them and will neverforgive them. Also waiting until the parent is calm will guarantee that they are not acting out ofThere are unfortunately many people that do abuse their children and child abuse is not asubject that should be taken lightly.
But there are times when children do need to be physicallyshown that they have done something wrong. Before spanking a child there are some things that parents must think about: whether or not the only answer is to spank( spanking should be a lastresort), they need to make sure that the child knows why he or she is being spanked, and theyparent MUST be calm! Spanking children out of anger is abuse. But spanking children is necessaryto communicate to them that they have done something wrong. Bibliography:
