I would like to respond to Walter Larimore’s column in which he attempts to justify spanking. Spanking is a euphemism for hitting. Whether “administered to the extremities or buttocks” (Larimore’s implied definition of spanking), or any other body part, hitting is still hitting.
And this hitting will elicit precisely the feelings one does not want to generate in a child: distress, anger, fear, shame and disgust.
Those who advocate hitting usually have run out of alternatives and do not understand infant and child development.
Larimore notes that, “Parents, for millennia, in virtually every recorded culture, have spanked their young children, when necessary, to teach them and to shape and mold their character–to ultimately benefit their children.” But this does not make spanking right or beneficial.
If hitting a child is not wrong, then nothing is wrong. If our long-term goal is to reduce violence in a civilized world, continuing to hit our children does not seem to be the best way to accomplish this.
Helping children and parents understand the feelings behind the behaviors, using words instead of actions, and listening and talking are strategies that are much more likely than hitting to result in healthy, happy, responsible children and adults.
