The evidence for spanking is overwhelmingly negative at this point in time. Saying that you were spanked and “turned out fine” is a gross oversimplification and carves out a niche where you are a magical exception to it all and you’re not. You can’t travel to a parallel universe where you weren’t spanked in order to…

Using retarded as a pejorative is offensive.

Ah, I keep forgetting that we’re in an era in which words have no meaning.

I agree 100%. This is a constant point of contention between my husband and me. We were both spanked as children, but for me I can tell you the two times I was spanked as a kid and what I did that got me spanked. He was spanked as a regular form of punishment. He always told me he was on the same page with me in terms…

“Which sends the message that only those who love you are allowed to hit you with impunity.”

I feel like we have decades of research demonstrating that AT BEST physical punishments are no more effective than alternatives and are associated with troubling outcomes. You’re essentially teaching a child when someone smaller and weaker does things they don’t like, that a physical reaction is appropriate.

“We use it now when my school-aged son is outright refusing to discuss or correct his misbehavior and has closed off all other avenues of correction.”

If it gets to the point that the only way you can discipline your kids is by beating them and having them hate your guts then a) you are a shit parent or b) your kid has some issues and you should get professional help if possible.

False. You are striking a child.

If I had kids, I definitely would not be down with my partner or family members spanking or “lightly spanking” them. Even with dogs, I believe that physical punishment belittles the intelligence kids/pets/etc. have to process their own bad behavior. Tell or show a kid what they did wrong, why it was bad, and what the…

To me the key thing is that the child reported being spanked to the school. That sets off warning bells.

“open hand spanking” = hitting

I love how instead of enshrining the eminently sensible, even-kids-understand it idea of “don’t hit people” in law, we instead have lawmakers debating and deciding exactly how and how much we can hit our very young children. I seriously just adore the idea of grown men and women arguing the granular differences…

As someone who was both beaten, kicked, punched to a pulp and “spanked”: it didn’t make ANY FUCKING difference. They were all damaging and assaults on my personhood and value and degrading as FUCK. FUCK YOU for insisting that this is okay with children. Would you non-sexually spank a grown woman?!

Sure. But then we get into parsing flavors of hitting – what kind of hitting is good hitting, what kind is bad hitting. Which, will doable, is a bit of a difficult proposition.

It might be permissible hitting, in your view, but spanking is definitely hitting.

Yet if you did the same thing to an adult, it would be assault.

I think it’s abuse. How hard is “don’t hit people”?

Probably best not to hit little kids.

Ralph is mighty Fiennes!