Spanking and Abuse

There are few topics that will set people off like corporal punishment.  Commenting on how a parent raises their child never ends well.  Football player Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings was indicted for whipping his child with a switch, causing bleeding and scarring.  And once more, the practice is front and center of the public’s awareness.  Various experts pontificate on the practice of spanking but make no attempt at an honest discourse.  It is exactly what is needed. 

First of all, Mr. Peterson’s actions needs to be clearly labeled as abuse.  Any time a parent hits a child to the point where there is bleeding or long-lasting scarring or welting, a line has been crossed.  Even when people speak of the good-ole days, seldom did responsible adults carry out discipline like Mr. Peterson.  He will have his day in court and he will have to answer for his actions.  He said that he was disciplined in this way but only an isolated intellect could have matured over the last twenty years without some basic understanding that certain things are no longer tolerated. 

At the same time, discipline of this nature is not always abuse and spanking cannot always be labeled as such.  In my time as a rather rowdy, hyperactive child, I was spanked with a hand, belt, brush and a switch.  However, there were components that separate it from the type of abuse making headlines.  First, my father waited between the offenses and the meting out of punishments.  This takes any anger out of the equation.  Second, he spanked not to punish but to teach.  This approach further prevented going too far with the belt, hand or whatever.  Third, he always explained afterwards why the spanking was done and what lessons needed to be taken from it.  Lastly, it was not done often.  For spanking, like most disciplinary efforts, too much desensitizes the child to the method.   

People who are against corporal punishment never mention – or don’t recognize or understand – the nuances that make up the range of spanking.  To suggest that all spanking is abuse is the height of intellectual laziness.  It is pronounced by people more interested in making a point than defending it with logic and context.  They don’t want the argument so they avoid it by labeling all spanking as abuse.  Who is going to speak on behalf of abuse?  No sensible adult would ergo it robs people of an honest debate.   

To make matters worse are the blubbering talking heads on networks like ESPN.  This past Sunday, Chris Carter, a former NFL player who now serves the network as a football analyst, nearly broke down, yelling that the NFL is being overtaken by spousal abusers and child abusers.  He too clearly is not interested in having debate, hoping his melodramatic, teary diatribe will prevent anyone from responding.  Not to be out done, fellow ESPN anchor Hannah Storm went on a similar emotional rant.  How is an honest conversation to take place when people are interjecting such irrational emotions – an emotional appeal designed to convince people not to respond?  I don’t care what type of opinion people have but be adult enough to have a conversation about it and not an emotional lamentation.   

Mr. Peterson’s actions are abusive but the practice is not necessarily so.  Responsible corporal punishment is just as effective as other forms of discipline – in my opinion and in some cases, more so.  I’m the product of corporal punishment – from my parents, grandparents, neighbors, teachers and principals.  In some people’s effort to denigrate the practice as the last vestiges of a barbarous culture, good and responsible parents are written off as criminal.  I would love to see the debate if those opposed to corporal punishment were interested in having such a conversation.