Muscatine

I would have to agree with Jr. Fan on this. I too have checked into this and as long as you do not leave a mark for more than 24 hours ( which I have NEVER left a mark) your alright.

I have to admit, I am also one of the parents that you all are bi**hing about, a young mom who is scared out of her mind to discipline her children, because her children are told over and over at school that it is wrong, and if your hit by your parents then you need to tell someone. Then you threaten your child with it and the first thing that comes out of their mouth is "go ahead I will have you aressted for child abuse after I tell my teacher you beat me"

I have tried everything to avoid swatting my children but it never seems to work. I can take everything away from them, they don't care, why because they are spoiled little brats, they will just find something else to play with.

My son has been in a fight over a weekend with his cousin, and we never had DHS called on us. His face looked like a cat attacked him it was all scratched up. When he was asked at the school what had happened to him he just told them that him and his cousin got into it. The school or anyone else should not be calling DHS on someone for one such incident, when given an explanation, now it would be different if that said child was going to school with marks on him or her all the time.

I see nothing wrong with swatting a child's butt at home or at a store. I was a scared mom, but not anymore, I think if it worked on me than it should be fine on them. I also think that if you don't want to see me swat his butt then look away, because I promise that I love my children to much to really do any physical harm to them. I always thought that they would hate me if I did it, well then I found that I am not their friend I am their mother and they better respect me and do as I say or they will get a swat.

I just told my son the other day that we would get a long much better if he just did as he was told, he came back with "well it's my life" I said nope it's mine, and until your 18 your going to live it my way.

Yes it is a strange time we live in. Everyone is afraid to do what they should be doing. And yes I said earlier that I heard the same stuff from my son 20 years ago when he came home from school. He would threaten to call DHS on me and i handed him the phone and told him to have at it. I never hurt that boy and now that he is grown he sees that and he thanks me for disciplining him. Now he does the same thing with his kids.

I have had experience with this as we had a child in our family call the police when her dad smacked her. The police came and when they heard the whole story , they told her right to her face tht if she had been thier daughter they would have done the same thing or worse. I won't go into detail what it was over but it was not nice. I get tired of parents saying they can't control thier kids or can't punish them, punishing them and beating them are two different things. And from what I see these days the parents have no control , it is the little ones who are controlling thier parents.  Now that is sad and only gonna be worse as they grow up.

I know that some people will give parents dirty looks or maybe even say something in a store or mall or whatever if the parent is too hard on a kid, and sometimes maybe tht is a good thing depending on how the parent is handling it. But I think on the whole most people would welcome for the parents to take control of thier kids.

My firm - but old fashioned - belief is that parents need to teach their kids to control themselves. God knows it ain't easy for lots of us but sure keeps us out of trouble.

The big problem with adults spanking is that SOME get carried away and that is when kids get hurt - but a swat on the butt is certainly a reminder that this behavior is NOT acceptable.

Many times when I am out shopping and I hear kids screaming and throwing fits it is usually because of poor choices by the adult - perhaps the kid is hungry or they should be taking their nap. It is hard for a small child to say  that they are tired - they cry! I have come out of Wal-Mart at 10 or 11 at night and saw parents bringing toddlers in to go shopping. Stay home - take care of your child. You will be rewarded.

I can't figure out why the schools should tell kids that they can turn their parents in. If the kid is being beat on - yes or if sexual abuse is going on - but normal parental discipline is not abusive. After all - self-control IS self-discipline.

Later