I think a good way to think about it is, would you think non-consensual hitting (even “light spanking”) your adult child or spouse or work colleague as a form of punishment would be acceptable or beneficial? The answer is, I would hope, no. I therefore fail to see how it is in anyway beneficial or acceptable to hit a…

I don’t think it’s child abuse. I was a big shit when I was a kid and periodically got spanked because of it. Nothing major. I think I turned out OK.

I have two little kids and I’ve never spanked either of them as of this writing. I haven’t taken the time to philosophically conclude that spanking is bad, but every time I’ve had the urge to spank, it always occurs to me that I should lead by example and demonstrate my anger in a better way. I also try to think about…

No. It isn’t. 

I’m in a position where I have to report child abuse more or less on the regular and what Robin Thicke described here, if that’s really what the kid was reporting, would not be considered reportable in my environment. I don’t think light spanking is abuse, it’s just stupid and ineffective. Parents do it because they…

I wonder if she can sing, cause, you know. . .

They asked her to sing but she was worried about the bad publicity.

I thought she would have gotten an invite to the inauguration by now.

My little brother pulled down his pants and peed in one of the model toilets in Home Depot when he was 4. My mom, aghast, smacked his bottom and someone called the cops. He laughed and continued peeing. A fun family outing.

There is disciple and there is abuse. Discipline is done out of love. Abuse isn’t.

As a parent myself, I think the really crucial thing about spanking is that it does not actually work for shit.

Spanking with the intent of discipline in cases that warrant it is not abuse. Some kids do not respond to any other kind of punishment. It should be a last resort. And definitely, never, ever, ever done out of anger or frustration.

It’s abuse in that it clearly sends the wrong message to a child that they will internalize and live with for the rest of their lives.

as a black woman, there’s a bunch of theories as to why black parents are more open to the concept of spanking (my father will openly encourage other parents to spank their kids if they’re misbehaving in public). looking back on my spankings, they only served to intimidate me and gave me a great deal of...grief?…

Wow, to go from performing a story like The Color Purple to the inauguration of That Man? The disconnect is strong there. I understand she’s had MS for years, and no money and no health insurance for most of that, so I guess I can understand the allure in the face of what must be a mountain of medical debt? They have g…

It seems like a lot of people don’t differentiate between “a whooping” and “a swat”.

White culture? Really? I know plenty of white families who spank, and plenty of families of color who don’t.

Your comment was ungreyed, so spanking is cool.

I feel like this is a mountain/molehill thing. I do not and have not spanked my child, but I don’t think a tap on the behind (never strong enough to leave a mark) is worthy of a goddamn investigation.