Comments Welcome

So, what do we think of this article?

http://parentingfreedom.com/discipline/

J sent it to me today, and we've just finished up a long discussion about some of the main points. As far as I can tell, the exegesis of the Proverbs verses is sound. Whether or not the correct reading of those verses means that we ought not to spank children isn't so clear.

Here are a couple of things that we're taking for granted at this point:

1) Different kids need different sorts of punishment. Some kids might need to be spanked as a regular form of discipline (if spanking is an appropriate form of discipline) but their siblings might be better parented by the restriction of privileges, time outs, etc. Along those lines, some parents probably ought to avoid corporal punishment.

2) Whether or not the text of Proverbs is instructing parents to spank their young children, corporal punishment certainly was a common practice in the ancient world and in most of human history. Again, that doesn't say whether it's right or wrong, but it's the context for any other text we'd bring into the discussion.

3) There's no place for bullying, venting anger, or intimidating in our discussion of spanking for James. (Or any of our other children.) If we were ever to use corporal punishment (and we haven't yet) it would either be the measured and explained consequence of an action that James understood would lead to a spanking, or the measured and explained consequence of an action that was so dangerous/serious we had to make sure it would never happen again.

Oh, and for the record--both J and I were spanked as children, and neither of us hold it against our parents in the slightest, whatever we decide about spanking and James. In fact, we both probably got off pretty lightly, given what stinkers we could be while knowing the consequences. We've never doubted our parents' love, mercy, and kindness.

I look forward to your comments.

Oh, and write back quickly, because today James threw a hissy fit when he wasn't allowed to bring Steven Bear into the bath with him. (As if we'd never denied him this in 16 months of previous baths.)

Also, make sure you look up the actual definition of the word "prodigal" before writing an article on the internet about prodigal children.