[UnschoolnMa]

A few weeks ago there was a letter in my local paper about how spanking children is appropriate and necessary in order to bring order and civility back to our youth and society.

: I promptly sent off a hurried, not very eloquent letter:

Quote:

I am very sorry that Mr. (name edited out) believes it's appropriate to assault children. People call it spanking, popping, smacking, and a number of other things that are probably meant to make it sound less dangerous than it really is, but it's really an assault. It is violence against our young; some of the most vulnerable people in this world. What's worse is that it is violence inflicted on children by the very people that are supposed to protect and cherish them. I do not look at spanking as simply a choice a parent can make, but rather I see it as a violation of the human rights of a child. Is it acceptable to hit your spouse or partner because they have angered you? Is it appropriate to strike your co-worker because you find his behavior irritating or frustrating? Of course it isn't, and if you were to do it the law would likely get involved. Children need to be able to trust their parents. I do not trust people that hurt and frighten me. Spanking is meant to hurt and frighten. Parents who hit their kids are sometimes fond of saying "We don't hit hard enough to hurt them. It's just enough to get their attention." This attention is from fear, and hitting people hurts. Perhaps there are varying degrees of pain depending on the individual hit, but spankings depend on the pain and the fear of future pain or they wouldn't be a (so called) effective tool for disciplining children. The bottom line for me is that it's not acceptable to assault people just because they do something we don't like. It's not acceptable to assault children to "teach" them something. The only thing you are teaching a child when you hit them is that you can and are willing to hurt them. And what a very sad lesson that is to teach. www.nospank.net www.neverhitachild.org www.nopunish.net www.naturalchild.org

 

[Imogen]

Excellent Letter and I completely agree

 

[frontierpsych]

I think it was a great letter, very to the point, very honest, and very truthful.

 

[UnschoolnMa]

Thanks muchly! It was written on the fly and with me in a state of

: so I wasn't sure lol.

 

[RosieTook]

That was excellent, very well written. It makes all the points it needs to, without getting into semantics. Nicely done.

 

[WuWei]

Thank you for writing. And thank you for sharing.

Pat

 

[Joannarachel]

Nice letter! I look forward to hearing about the enraged slew of angry mail from the child hitters

:

 

[AntoninBeGonin]

Bravo!

 

[Elyra]

I wish I could be that well spoken on the fly. I think it is a great letter.

 

[peacelovingmama]

Great letter! It may provoke some angry responses but I think it is absolutely worth it if it gets just one person to re-think hitting children. I am convinced that, when we stop teaching our children to accept violence, the world will become less violent.

 

[sapphire_chan]

Wow, you spit some very finely wrought nails. You also have excellent typing skills, if I tried writing a letter when I was so mad I couldn't see straight there would have been all kinds of errors.

Just brace yourself for all the letters where people describe giving "little taps" "only in dangerous situations".

:

 

[UnschoolnMa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sapphire_chan Wow, you spit some very finely wrought nails. You also have excellent typing skills, if I tried writing a letter when I was so mad I couldn't see straight there would have been all kinds of errors.

Ahh yes, behold the magic that is spell check!

Thank you for that compliment though. I can be so long winded that I wonder if I might have missed the point.

Quote:

Just brace yourself for all the letters where people describe giving "little taps" "only in dangerous situations". :

Definitely. So predictable. The original letter that prompted mine had that famous line in it: "I was spanked and I turned out alright." It's not very kind of me but I say that's debatable.

 

[Tonia80]

very well written and I totally agree with what you said in regards to fear. I try to explain that to moms and dads I know who spank. I would rather my kids respect me than fear me! That just makes me sad to see kids afraid of the very people who ought to be protecting them. And good point about it not being okay to hit adults but it is acceptable to hit a child who is defensless? That mindset blows me away.

 

[alba]

Eloquent.

 

[UnschoolnMa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tonia80 And good point about it not being okay to hit adults but it is acceptable to hit a child who is defensless? That mindset blows me away.

I totally agree. We've decided (thankfully!) that it's unacceptable to assault every other group of people, but children... nope it's still totally fine to be violent with them.

: It's craziness.

 

[ollineeba]

Awesome letter

 

[mooliette]

I couldn't agree with you more!! Great letter!