hi miked10270I -Stating that another class of persons is unable to learn without beatings and subject to force at the discretion of another class of beings is to treat the former class of beings as sub-human. I don't know much about freud, my initial forays in to his works led me to beleive he wrote a bunch of nonsense. I do know something about AI and current child development theory and children are capable of learning prior to birth even. My son (the one who has never been struck) was a phonetic reader shortly after his third birthday.
Im sure your a good parent Mike and I would never tell another parent how to raise their kids. (Its on my list of ways to piss people off, its near the top even
. You mentioning that your not proud of smacking your kids shows your heart is in the right place.
And on to general comments:
I was spanked as a child. All it ever did was make me think "One Day motherfucker your not going to be able to do that to me!"
Spanking does not work. As sierra2774 stated spanked children are often the worst behaved children. You cannot use force to inflict PAIN on your children and expect them not to learn from the example. If spanked children grow up well-adjusted it is in spite of the spankings not because of them. If you cant find some level you can reason with your child on thats your fault. Also the talk of "punishing" children disturbs me. No matter what means you use the focus should be on correcting the behavior not punishment.
I have changed my mind. Spanking should be illegal and driven underground. People must be forced to look at this modern day barbarism they have faith in and reconsider. I worry that my son is in the company of children that have been taught by example that smacking other people when you disagee with their actions is acceptable behavior.