I Will Beat the Skin Off Of You

Imagine coming home from a hot, long and tiring day of work only to find that your son is running around the house like a savage beast, smashing every piece of glass in his way and drawing on every wall in the house with permanent marker. Is it safe to assume that your son, whom you may love with all of your heart and would give the world to, deserves to get a spanking? 

In a society that is so concerned with child abuse and child safety, parents are often times forced to walk a fine line between what's socially accepted as disciplining your child and what is seen as child abuse. Some parents often times wonder if I spank my child with my hand, is that abuse because I am physically stronger than my child; or if I spank my child with a belt, is someone going to say I am physically abusing my child and potentially call child services to report me?

If people were not as consumed with the flaws someone else or what they were doing with their children then parents would be able to prevent many of the unfortunate situations that occur daily within American society. As children get older and mature, disciplinary actions that once worked when they were infants and adolescents no longer give parents the desired outcome and subsequently parents must adjust and develop new actions. But too many times parents are forced to hear the infamous line from Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion, "if you touch me I'm gonna call 911" because children learn early on that all they have to do is tell an authority figure that their parents are abusing them and parents instantly transform into babysitters.

I overheard someone say "most of the problems that we have today is because parents don't discipline their children." If parents are forced to discipline their kids with empty threats because society doesn't think it's acceptable to spank children; or because children are to easily allowed to scream abuse and be taken away from their home, then high crime rates and poor test grades in school should be expected. So the next time someone says "she or he's a 'bad parent' because their child runs wild," think from the perspective of a parent that is a virtual puppet because society confines them to certain methods for disciplining their child.

There is a thin line between discipline and child abuse. Many parents and gaurdians blur this line and the result ends up being that the child's safety and well being are in danger. The definition of discipline may vary from person to person from one extreme to another but instead of resorting to capital punishment there are other alternatives. Spanking your child could become dangerous especially if the parent is angry while doing so.

Discipline doesn’t mean that you have to beat your child black and blue to get your point across. Simply using a time-out method, where you isolate the child for their wrong doing is an effective method. Parents should also consider the future effects of physically punishing their children. Some children grow up to resent their parents for the methods of discipline that have been used on them.

Sue.Me.