Sunday 19 October 2008

To smack or not to smack...that is the question...

In my absence from internet life, Stew hit my car. He backed into it with his. There is only a tiny mark on the number plate, but I was right angry because anyone who knows me and my car will automatically think it is me who has hit it!

My daughter is cheeky and chopsy. We used to give her small smacks when she was really naughty then stopped. Should we start smacking again? Do you/did you smack your children?

6 comments:

Brenda said...

i used to give a swat on the bottom when my daughter got sassy, but i always felt worse than she probably did. i only had to spank my son once(for telling a fib)(he was the perfect child) hehe
i would make my kids stand facing a corner, with no talking. if they fussed i would add minutes. they didn't like that much.

Jenny Robin said...

Smacks or a full blown spanking?

I was spanked with a 2X4 piece of lumber used as a wooden paddle when I was bad. It was usually because I hit my little sister.

I still resent it, plus I never understood why I was hit if I was getting in trouble for hitting and being told hitting was wrong.

ah, the irony.

Orbie/\;;/\ said...

I probably would have if I had ever needed to. Maddie was actually never a real problem (other than her messy room) My parents were non spankers and I always wished they would have just spanked instead of talking me to death!

Jilly said...

my parents were spankers and still are. whenever i take my niece and nephew and they do wrong, my sister or parents always respond, "did you whip him?" (not literally hit with a whip, but it means to spank). I don't spank them, i usually make them sit in a chair in a room with no toys or stand ina corner for X minutes until and if they don't stand there quietly, then they get more time. I also have a rule about falling out in public or begging for things. I have put all my stuff back and walked out of stores and paid for food and had it wrapped up and left restaurants because of behavior. now they know how to behave in public and i didn't need to raise a finger.

I don't know if we'll spank mandolin yet but I don't really think we will, as there are better ways to manage the behavior of children while explaining logic and rules without violence. i really like the ABC's of behavior management and if it works with the crazy children i teach, then it should work with her.

Right now, she's 1, and there's nothing she could do to get a spanking, as she's too little to know better. She does respond positively to "stop" and "no" and listens quite well for someone her age.

good luck with your decision, it isn't an easy one and there are many outside pressures.

jilly

emma said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
emma said...

Clanky,
My own father smacked me once and once only--when I was sixteen and I was mouthing off to him. He smacked me across the face so hard that my glasses went flying. I remember it to this day. (A long time afterward, my mother confided in me that my Dad felt absolutely horrible for days and days afterward for losing his cool like that)

Having said that, when my son was little I used to swat him on the butt occasionally, but like Spidey I felt worse than he ever did so I quit. Then I started taking away his privileges and that worked way better (imagine a 17 year old WITHOUT jhis cell phone??!!!--the horrors!) One summer his room was nearly bare: No electronic devces like his TV or DVD player, etc.
It was Heaven on a stick, I tell ya.


PS: I deleted my first comment because there were so many misspellings you'd think that Meme had written it (Snap to Mems!) ;)