How should parents be allowed to punish their children? - Page 3 - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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#14823697
I read an interesting thing once. It said that spanking kids made them NOT fear physical consequences for bad behavior. The theory was that they became inured to physical pain. The study showed that deprivation of privileges was much more feared than a spanking.

Spanking requires that an adult make a considered opinion to physically hurt a child. I don't want to be that guy.
#14823703
Actually, the age of the child in question has a lot to do with it. Taking away privileges and using logic are probably far more damaging and ineffectual on very young children than spanking. Whereas, when the child is old enough to understand losing privileges and much later logic, then spanking is probably a poor choice most of the time.
#14823705
Under pater familias, the father at some points had the authority to execute anyone in his family, although this fluctuated widely during the course of the Roman empire and exercising the right to kill was both frowned upon and scandalous, in a time when scandals were a bigger deal than they are today. This is similar to the rules in many traditional societies and I think there's been some convincing argument that the right to kill was more about intimidating people than it was about killing them, which is why such powers were so rarely exercised (usually only a couple recorded instances per century, which is probably no different or arguably even less than the rates of domestic disputes and abuses that result in death today).

I believe that if you take anything off the table, people will use it against you. The proper punishments for children should be based upon what the children are like and what they're doing. Elementary school black kids in Chicago may be found carrying guns, western people would apply the same rules to them as they would to anyone else, even though other kids probably not be packing heat...
#14823720
Other than some mild exceptions (like swatting their hand away from a hot surface because that's all there's time for), there's no reason to spank (let alone beat) a child. Beating kids is lazy parenting at best and criminal/animal at worst. Spanking them is only a matter of degree, not kind. Why do it? To show them "who's boss?" If you're doing your job right, they already know.
#14823784
One Degree wrote:Liberal thought = 'no child should be spanked' and 'Anti liberal speakers deserve to be punched in the face'


Hilarious.

Do you think that a child reaching for a hot element is just as deserving of violence as a grown man preaching the same genocide we supposedly fought against in WWII?

Or conversely, do you think Nazis are just confused children who need to be taught and coddled?
#14823785
Pants-of-dog wrote:Hilarious.

Do you think that a child reaching for a hot element is just as deserving of violence as a grown man preaching the same genocide we supposedly fought against in WWII?

Or conversely, do you think Nazis are just confused children who need to be taught and coddled?


At which point in my life? When I was young, I punched anyone who disagreed with me. As I got older, I argued with them and only rarely punched them. Now, I simply ignore the ones who are spouting stuff I have heard before and listen to the ones I have not. A few people are just vile, but most who want an audience believe they know some 'truth'. I like to at least listen to their 'truth' no matter how vile it sounds initially. I have learned some important lessons from very unusual people, so I don't easily dismiss other's views.
#14823789
If firebombing the women and children of Dresden and Tokyo was good clean fun for the RAF and the US Air Force in the 40s why should punching Nazis be forbidden now? The double standards of the sympathisers of fascism are plain for all too see
#14823795
Decky wrote:If firebombing the women and children of Dresden and Tokyo was good clean fun for the RAF and the US Air Force in the 40s why should punching Nazis be forbidden now? The double standards of the sympathisers of fascism are plain for all too see


I see no difference whether the speaker is a Nazi, KKK, Black Muslim, or IRA. They all represent a threat of violence, but have a right to be heard. Also, these groups have no power in the US and there is no real threat. You may as well worry about your lawn mower eating you as fearing any of these groups in the US.
#14823814
One Degree wrote:At which point in my life? When I was young, I punched anyone who disagreed with me. As I got older, I argued with them and only rarely punched them. Now, I simply ignore the ones who are spouting stuff I have heard before and listen to the ones I have not. A few people are just vile, but most who want an audience believe they know some 'truth'. I like to at least listen to their 'truth' no matter how vile it sounds initially. I have learned some important lessons from very unusual people, so I don't easily dismiss other's views.


Lol at irony.

My point was that the situations are not comparable. Nazis perpetuating the age old trick of racial genocide is not the same thing as children misbehaving.
#14823817
Pants-of-dog wrote:Lol at irony.

My point was that the situations are not comparable. Nazis perpetuating the age old trick of racial genocide is not the same thing as children misbehaving.

Comparing the threat of American Nazis to what happened under Hitler is like comparing the PTA to the UN.
#14823824
Pants-of-dog wrote:Sure.

What about comparing children to American Nazis? How smart is that?

Yes, that was a serious statement, that is why I gave @LV-GUCCI-PRADA-FLEX a 'touche' when he jabbed me right back. :eh:
#14890654
I don't think anyone should ever be allowed to hit their children. I was never hit when I was young, and I'm still not now, but that doesn't mean I was so good I was never punished. But think about it - being sent to your room on a nice day, often without your favourite toys and not being allowed to use your laptop and having to stay there until dinner time, is so boooring! It is one of the worst punishments - even worse than being grounded. Then there's the usual little lecture when you come down about thinking about what you did - and saying you won't do it again - blech! :roll:

So yeh, there's lots of way to punish kids which doesn't involve beating them.

I like this bit of a poem by a Khalil Gibran.

'Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.'

Parents should remember that children are not property.
#14890664
Godstud wrote:Unless it's child abuse(not spankings), parents should be allowed to punish their child in any way they see fit.


I generally agree with this, but we do need to have a careful and concrete definition of what constitutes abuse, otherwise this whole conversation just begs the question. "Is spanking abuse," is "using a wooden spoon" abuse? I don't think either is, but once again, saying that "only abuse should be prohibited" can be quite intrusive depending on how broadly interpreted such a definition is allowed to be.

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