Parenting isn’t easy, and everyone does it differently. Some parents prefer to let their children go without discipline. They believe that children will learn from their mistakes and become stronger adults as a result of it. There are other parents who are so strict that they don’t give their children a chance to make mistakes. They monitor their children’s every move and don’t have to discipline them because they aren’t able to do anything wrong.
Other parents fall somewhere in between, and they hand out discipline when it is needed.
The question is, which type of parenting is the best? There is no easy answer to this question, and most people would say do what works for you and your family. When it comes to spanking, however, everyone chooses a side. People are either against it or for it. Parenting experts even have an opinion.
John Drewicz, Association of Educational Psychologists national executive committee member, said:
“Smacking is harmful to a child’s mental health, it models aggressive behavior and it says to them that it is OK to use violence. Sixty countries already have full bans, including Sweden, Ireland, Spain, Germany, and Portugal, and it is time to make violence against children illegal in the UK in all settings, including the home.”
Not everyone agrees that this is the right answer.
Some people support parents who choose to use spanking as a way to discipline their children. They claim that telling people how to parent and telling parents when they are wrong only undermines them. Still, they want parents to understand that spanking their children is different from physically harming them or abusing them. There has to be a line drawn somewhere.
Dr. Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, explained that parents have the right to set boundaries for their children and discipline them in a reasonable way.
She added:
“However, we need to ensure that children are legally safeguarded in their own homes. We are not talking about dictating to parents how this is done but what we are saying is that it in 2018 beating children in anger, or as part of a pre-meditated punishment, is neither acceptable or defensible.”
Dr. Stuart Waiton, a sociologist and campaigner at Be Reasonable Scotland, doesn’t agree.
He explained that many of the types of discipline parents use would be illegal if used on other adults. He said:
“What about grounding a child? If you grounded in an adult it would be a criminal offense.”
PJ Media has offered some interesting statistics on how different cultures view spanking. According to the website:
“Only 30 percent of Asians approve of spanking, while a whopping 82 percent of African-Americans do so. The numbers for Caucasians, Native Americans, and Hispanics follow the national average, at 71 percent, 75 percent, and 74 percent, respectively. Spanking is most popular in the South, where 78 percent support it. It is least popular in the Northeast, where 63 percent do so. 78 percent of Christians call this practice acceptable, while only 66 percent of non-Christians agree.”
The study found that education and politics also play a role in whether parents choose to spank their children as a form of discipline.
The website added:
“Interestingly, the more education a person has, the less likely he or she is to support spanking. 87 percent of men with only a high school diploma call the practice acceptable, while 67 percent of women with that level of education do so. Even fewer men with a college degree (64 percent) agree, and only 57 percent of women at that level do so. Nevertheless, this is still a majority. Self-described Republicans (80 percent) are more likely to agree with spanking than self-described Democrats (65 percent).”
It’s likely that this will a topic that is always debated.
In the end, most parents are just flying by the seat of their pants anyways and do the best they can. We can only hope we are making the right choices and raising kids that are functioning members of society as adults.
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