Pope Francis says it is OK to smack children if their ‘dignity is maintained’

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Being open an honest about why they are being punished and that punishment being a pop on the bum is perfectly reasonable. It is associating a quick less than harmful pain as a result of an inappropriate behavior. Hitting in anger is never ok. There is a difference in having a pop on the bum the prescribed punishment for a certain behavior and seeing it through rather than a hit in anger or raising your voice in anger. Everybody has heard this before and yet a bunch of non parents who think they know better would accuse me of child abuse. Shame on them. I agree that not all children need spanking. Not all children are the same and respond to different punishments. And BTW punishment for certain inappropriate behaviors is important in raising a disciplined child.
 
Oh boy another spanking thread where some will say how they were and grew up just fine and others will call it psychologically damaging child abuse! I'm going to leave before I get too angry
I was spanked as a child but I didn't grow up fine at all. But not because of the spanking. Because I grew up in a generally cold household. Not much love was displayed and not much hate either. It was a purely neutral experience. I feel this has had an effect on how I view relationships and women in my adult life.

But the spanking? Meh.
 
There's a difference between a smack on the bottom and slapping your child across the face.

I've never seen anything all that wrong with smacking a kid on the bottom to catch their attention for doing something wrong or dangerous.

Pope's advice is sound in my book.
 
Yep, spanking is so so child abuse. Whats next, I cannot ground my children or take away their electronics because it is emotional/psychological abuse during their years of self discovery.

.... you are not allowed to spank an adult .. an adult that can defend himself .
But you should be allowed to spank your childen that are defensless have not fully developed, have no common sense and have only you as protection,teacher and person to look up to.
But you should be allowed to spank them ... because??? what? you had a bad day? children are annoying?
If you do what you defend to adults you have troube with the law,money maybe even freedom.. But defensles children hell yeah!! open season.
and btw that you compare beatings to taking away some playstation or grounding says everything anyway.
 
Spanking is fine, i was hit by my mom on the ass with clothes hangers everytime i did something reaaaally bad. It was normal sutff growing up in Mexico in the 80's. You did something really bad, you got your ass kicked eith whatever your mom had close at the moment.

I have never spanked or phisically reprehended my kids, they get scared by me just raising my voice a notch and talking more serious.

I could never hurt them like that.
 
This thread is a really good example of how context is really important and yet usually ignored in moral debates.

Slapping a child is not a good thing. It should be avoided. You can justify if it is to a good end, but the-end-justifies-the-means thing is, as it implies, kind of fatalistic and negative anyway. I would only actually slap a kid if it was the difference between them running out into a busy road or them staying safe or something. It isn't necessary.
 
And your alternative is, oh, lemme guess... Grounding them so that they will grow up knowing not morality or reason, but instead knowing how to not get caught? C'mon, please, enlighten me.

I can't say I've ever resorted to physically assaulting a child. I'm glad some other posters think it is necessary, however.
 
Yep, spanking is so so child abuse. Whats next, I cannot ground my children or take away their electronics because it is emotional/psychological abuse during their years of self discovery.

Hate to tell you this, but there are already people that think this way. One of my former friends is one of them, and his kid is Satan incarnate because of his 'no mean punishments' rule.
 
Some really sheltered people in this thread from the looks of it. Or people who had their parents go to town on them. There is a middleground.

Either way, spanking your kids is not abuse if it's done right. A tap on the bum or the hand is not abuse. It's a parenting tool to teach your kid where positive reinforcement fails.

That's not to say parents that rely soley on it aren't shit parents.

That's my feelings on it. It's a tool that shouldn't be used but I can understand certain cases where it might be valid.
 
Why do you have to hit their hand in that scenario?
Cause kids only know what they experience, you either let them touch the stove and get burned or you gotta reinforce how off limits it is.

Real abuse is when you shared stories with your fellow classmates and one starts bringing out stories about belts and other assorted helpers.
 
I can't say I've ever resorted to physically assaulting a child. I'm glad some other posters think it is necessary, however.

well you can only attack them as long as they are children if you wait too long and they are adults you get into trouble with the law crazy world i know :(
 
Spanking is fair punishment for a child. You're not doing it to hurt them, it's to teach them actions have consequences. Don't do it in anger, and don't cause any real harm.

I was spanked as a kid, and it kept us in line. "Grounding" kids or taking away privileges doesn't work. Kids don't care, they can have fun in their bedrooms with a piece of string if they damn well want to.

Besides, you only have to do it a couple of times before the threat of a spank is enough to cause good behaviour.

"The threat of a spank"? You do realise what that implies, right? I was on the fence about the whole thing, but that's swayed me. Put me in #teamnothittingkids
 
Cause kids only know what they experience, you either let them touch the stove and get burned or you gotta reinforce how off limits it is.

You have already failed at parenting if you're letting a child that is young enough to not understand that a hot stove is dangerous to be within reach of it unsupervised.

But I guess I can see how lazy ass parents have to resort to physical violence.
 
You have already failed at parenting if you're letting a child that is young enough to not understand that a hot stove is dangerous to be within reach of it unsupervised.

But I guess I can see how lazy ass parents have to resort to physical violence.

Lol, someone is not a parent.

What if im a single parent and need to cook my kid a healthy dinner to avoid making him fat with fast food?

Where's your compassion?
 
.... you are not allowed to spank an adult .. an adult that can defend himself .
But you should be allowed to spank your childen that are defensless have not fully developed, have no common sense and have only you as protection,teacher and person to look up to.
But you should be allowed to spank them ... because??? what? you had a bad day? children are annoying?
If you do what you defend to adults you have troube with the law,money maybe even freedom.. But defensles children hell yeah!! open season.
and btw that you compare beatings to taking away some playstation or grounding says everything anyway.

you can't make an adult get vaccinated either.

way to classify vaccinations as child abuse.
 
Why does everything on GAF need to be so black or white?!

1. Abusing kids is a crime
2. If you are a parent and you spank your kid because the kid is acting like an asshole it does not automatically mean that you should loose your parenting rights.
 
Different punishments work with different kids. Before I officially took over raising my nephew my sister tried spanking him. It just escalated his emotions and caused him to be more destructive. My problem with spanking is not the concept, but rather the execution and often long term repurcussions. Far too many parents spank out of anger or frustration. The spanking becomes a release for the parent rather than a means of correcting bad behavior. And I think using things like paddles and belts or worse is assault plain and simple. The long term fear and resentment that the child then can develop for the one who disciplined them just does not outweigh any short term adjustment to his or her behavior. To say nothing about how it might skew that child's attitudes regarding violence.
 
When I think about the millions upon millions of children that will be harmed because of this ignorance, it gets my blood boiling.

If corporal punishment is unacceptable for adults who commit serious offenses why is it necessary teach children? Answer: it's not. Your attitude is guided either by tenuous ancient doctrine or indifference towards the practice because of your own small experience.
 
Why does everything on GAF need to be so black or white?!

1. Abusing kids is a crime
2. If you are a parent and you spank your kid because the kid is acting like an asshole it does not automatically mean that you should loose your parenting rights.

Spanking?! That's physical assault to some people here.
 
Why does everything on GAF need to be so black or white?!

1. Abusing kids is a crime
2. If you are a parent and you spank your kid because the kid is acting like an asshole it does not automatically mean that you should loose your parenting rights.

I'd like to study the correlation of idiotic dogmatic thinking with the rise of true/false tests in modern education.
 
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