The Importance Of Spanking

My friend Christine believes that spanking is one of the worst ways of disciplining a child and that parents should never have to hit a child as a means of discipline. My mother thinks differently. According to her, Palo (spanking) or a physical punishment by a parent, as long as it is not excruciating, is a necessary form of punishment. I used to be one of those people that condoned spanking, not only because I was raised that way but also because I believed that spanking teaches a child to obey as well as to avoid future “misdemeanor.” I do not condone physical punishment anymore, and one of the reason is that it teaches children to lie when confronted. If an angry mom or dad is standing with a wooden stick or a belt and asks, “Did you do this?” Do you think a child would say, “Yes I did it. Please, spank me”? Of course not. So how can a parent expect children not to lie when they see a stick or a belt? I know I did.

Spanking also teaches a child to avoid getting caught. Just like my daughter who used to hide her sister’s things …show more content…
In my opinion, parents spank their children because they do not have the patience to appropriately discipline their children. I am not saying that parents who spank are necessarily evil parents. They are just resorting to the only conflict resolution model they encountered in life (just like what happened to my cousin and her father). I agree with my friend Christine; "some parents just need more tools in their parenting toolbox"; that is why it is crucial to increase our parenting toolboxes, and not resort to aggressive conflict resolution model of physical punishment. It is our job as parents to create environments for our children that are safe for learning and growing, and obviously, not through