Argument

         When it comes to disciplining your child, is violence the only way to get your point across. Some parents seem to think that violence is the only way that their children will listen and or respect them. In reality there are other actions that can be taken instead of leading right to violence to solve your problems. Parents who hit their children are only creating fear not love for the child. Spanking your child may often lead to them having emotional issues in the future, and may cause them to be abusive to their own children when they become parents.

            For children who are being disciple with corporal punishment are shown to have emotional and behavioral issues later in life (Dr. Ben Kim.) More than likely children who are spanked tend to feel low about them and start to believe that they deserve to get hit. Eventually some children place the parent’s short tempered personalities on themselves for making their parents that mad in the first place. Hitting your child only shows them that using abusive behaviors towards other people when they make you upset is okay. This way of disciplining children does not show them how to deal with frustrating situations as they get older; it only shows them that violence is what gets your point across. That’s not the solution at all.

            Personally I come from an old fashion Portuguese household. When my mother was growing up spanking your child was the least uncommon thing to do. Olden days have shown that, that was the only way to discipline their children. They know nothing about child abuse and taking things too far as we know about today. No child likes to be punished in that way but in my mother’s case she couldn’t hate that way of discipline any more than she did.

She always said she would never discipline her children in the same ways that she was disciplined and she never did. She always did say though, that there was a vast difference in spanking your child in terms of giving them a tap on the hand for doing something they should not have and physically beating your child. Growing up if my sister and I would misbehave she would punish us differently. Things like cell phones, television sets, any other electronic devices, or even not hanging out with friends for some time would get taken away until further notice. My mother has this system where she would ground us for a certain period of time and for every different chore or good thing that we did to help out with each other or for our parents one day was taken off of our individual punishments. No physical harm had to be done to me or my sister for us to gain that respect for our mother and to know that what we had done was wrong for her to punish us in the first place.

Being a parent of course you do not want your child to feel like they can walk all over you because you’re not being violent and abusive with them. You still as a parent have to take matters into your own hands when it comes to disciplining your child so they learn the difference between what acceptable behaviors is and what is not. Some parents take disciplining their child to a whole other level when the discipline becomes abuse. That’s not acceptable even for the parents. Abuse also doesn’t just mean physical harm towards the child; it could mean emotional abuse as well. Sometimes words hurt more than actually being hit (When can discipline turn into abuse?)

There are some things that you could do to punish your child but in a non-violent ways. Punishing and rewarding/ encouragement are a good tool when disciplining your child. Parents are so quick to notice when a child does bad. Children need to hear praise when they perform appropriately also. Positive reinforcement makes for less troubled behavior.

            In some people’s defense, the fact of spanking your child is sometimes okay if done appropriately. Pediatricians have stated that is more likely that parents spank children around the ages of 2 to 6 and no older than the age of 10 (Its okay to spank your kids now.) In some households the parents don’t know any different on how to raise their children. Using force towards a child may have been something that they were raised with and used within their family and has always seemed to be the method to be used. Maybe to some parents they feel that’s the only way their child listens is when they physically take care of the problem.

Many people come up with different reasons why they are pro spanking or why they are not. Maybe it’s because that’s all they’ve ever know when they were growing up and they just continue with what has always been done; or simply just maybe because they feel like their child listens better when spanking is being used. Unfortunately some parents just do it to feel in control and sadly leaving their children probably emotionally damaged for the rest of their lives. Whatever the case may be there is a difference between discipline and beating your child.  

Works Cited Page

 ·         "Should Parents Spank Their Children?" Dr. Ben Kim .com. Web. 01 May 2012. <http://drbenkim.com/should-parents-spank-children.html>.

·         "When Can Discipline Turn Into Abuse?" Pregnancy and Parenting. Web. 01 May 2012. <http://www.thelaboroflove.com/articles/when-can-discipline-turn-into-abuse>.

·         "Get the Word Out!" Get the Word Out! Web. 01 May 2012. <http://ateasetees.wordpress.com/2007/12/14/its-ok-to-spank-your-kids-now/>.