First no-spank state?

[hotmommy]

Bay State’s going slap-happy - BostonHerald.com

Parents who spank their kids - even in their own homes - would be slapped by the long arm of the law under an Arlington nurse’s proposal to make Massachusetts the first state in the nation to outlaw corporal punishment.
Kathleen Wolf’s proposed legislation will be debated at a State House hearing tomorrow morning.
If signed into law, parents would be prohibited from forcefully laying a hand on any child under age 18 unless it was to wrest them from danger, lest they be charged with abuse or neglect.
Rep. Jay Kaufman, a Lexington Democrat, submitted the 61-year-old Wolf’s petition at her request, but is not taking a position for or against corporal punishment.
“He does recognize and understand the concern many would have on legislating parental rights,” said Sean Fitzgerald, Kaufman’s chief of staff, “but the problem is the boundary is often overstepped. The right to hit should never be the right to hurt.”
Charles Enloe, 45, of Plymouth, knows a little something about that. In 2005, he was infamously arrested and charged with assault with a dangerous weapon for taking a belt to his then 12-year-old son during an argument over homework.
The charges were later dropped and Enloe told the Herald yesterday the experience “didn’t change my views at all. I believe discipline starts at home. Are they going to start legislating that you can’t raise your voice to your kids? That you can’t tell them when to go to bed? We’ll be communists then.”
The state Supreme Judicial Court agreed in principle when it ruled in 1999 that parents can spank their kids provided they don’t threaten bodily injury.
Corporal punishment in the home is already illegal in Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Latvia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Sweden and the Ukraine.
In 1979, Sweden became the first country in the world to ban spanking. Anders Erickson, spokesman for the Embassy of Sweden in Washington, D.C., said in the 1960s 53 percent of Swedes backed corporal punishment of children. By the 1990s, that number was less than 10 percent.
“There are other ways and means to bring up children than to beat them,” Erickson said. “Much better ways.”
An ombudsman is available to children in Sweden to report allegations of corporal punishment. Parents face jail time if it’s found they’ve stepped out of line.

I'm the mother of 2 and I DO spank...but only when the situation calls for it. If you spank for every little thing, then it loses it's effect. It is amazing what one good smack on the butt will do when the situation calls for it.
And for any who wonder, my state is a 3 Spank State...you can spank 3 times in succession within reason without fear of reprocussions.

By the way, there is a difference between Spanking and Beating.

[greysfang]

Well, I guess my ass is going to jail then. I couldn't tell you the last time I spanked my boys though, now that they're older taking away their wheels or electronics is much more effective.

[Gen X EJC]

well thank god we can still spank adults! whew!

[zebracakes]

By the way, there is a difference between Spanking and Beating.

Just like water boarding isn't torture, right? Call it whatever you want, you're hitting your kids. Just because you aren't leaving bruises that doesn't mean it's not abusive. The truth hurts so I fully expect you'll be angry, but so be it.

[Grimmlok]

^^ that's crap.

Giving your kid a swat on the bottom is a wee bit different than ramming their head through a wall or punching them in the kidney to intentionally cause damage.

How ridiculous.

[Gen X EJC]

indoctrinating and brainwashing them can be far worse than any physical harm.

[greysfang]

Yeah, and people wonder how kids got so bratty, destructive, uncontrollable these days. I will tell you how, Dr. Spock and his bullshit.

[hotmommy]

Everyone's entitiled to their own opinion...if you think spanking and beating are the same and you should never spank, take a poll. Next time you're in a restaurant and you see a bunch of bratty, whiny kids with indulgent parents seated next to a table of well behaved children, ask the parents who spanks. Bet you'll be surprised at the answer.
Not saying all parents who spank have good kids and parents who don't don't, but look at the kids in this day in the age of "Don't Spank, Don't Yell".

[msdeb]

this will be a big big thread, i can see it now.

i dont agree with spanking your kids, but thats my opinion. however, they should include verbal abuse in there. Why make it okay to call your child a stupid son of a bitch, but you cant spank them?

[*DIVA!]

I don't think there is a thing wrong with spanking your child. I can tell the difference in kids who aren't, and who are... I just pray I never run into the kids who aren't later on in life...I wonder if Charles Manson was spanked?

[msdeb]

I don't think there is a thing wrong with spanking your child. I can tell the difference in kids who aren't, and who are... I just pray I never run into the kids who aren't later on in life...I wonder if Charles Manson was spanked?

i'd make a bet with you about that. my children are very well behaved. never talk back, do well in school, do their chores, etc. never had to raise a hand to either of them. how can you tell someone is or isnt spanked? a friend of mine spanks her kid for all minor infractions, but i never knew this until she told me.

[buttmunch]

I don't think there is a thing wrong with spanking your child. I can tell the difference in kids who aren't, and who are... I just pray I never run into the kids who aren't later on in life...I wonder if Charles Manson was spanked?

Here's an interesting thought: it's been illegal to lay a finger on kids in Sweden since the early seventies, so that's a couple of generations that haven't been spanked or anything else. Strangely enough, Sweden boasts an extremely low crime rate and a very harmonious society. Could there be a connection?

[DoveFeatheredRaven]

I think our society as whole is creating generations of indulged, arrogant assholes. This is my tenth year to teach and just over my little ol' ten years of teaching I have witnessed the downward spiral of the attitudes of teenagers. They are becoming more and more convinced they are the most important person on earth, how dare anyone say "no" to them, and convinced what they want and their opinions are the ONLY things that matter.

[Chilly Willy]

Where I live, spanking is prohibited as well. And I'm all for it. I've been spanked and I've been beaten as a kid, and I know the difference. But that doesn't mean that spanking won't harm a kid.

My bf has been raised by Hippie parents, completely anti-authoritarian. His parents have never said no to him. Him and his brothers are the most polite, most ambitious, most well balanced young men you'll ever find. My siblings and I, on the other hand, are in for a lifetime of therapy sessions.

[Ravenna]

I don't believe in spanking children. I don't think it is an effective parenting tool, I think it sends the wrong message to kids, and is liable to damage the parent/child relationship. I was pretty much as good a child and teenager as one could expect, not perfect, but largely trouble-free, and one of the reasons for that was that I didn't want to cause any grief to my very loving parents. If they had been spanking me as a child, I don't think I would have been as considerate to their feelings as I was. I expect there would have been some resentment of them.

Having said all that, I do not consider spanking to be abusive per se, and sending a parent to jail for occasionally swatting their child on the bottom would be extreme. It's just a bit too much interference from the state in the family life for my comfort. I do not believe spanking should be criminalized.

Now, with spanking being so villified by some, I can understand people who do spank their kids being defensive about it, but come on, suggesting Charles Manson may be evil because of not being spanked as a child is absurd.