Seriously,
I'm finding it quite difficult, when faced with such idiots. Some of the comments make me despair for humanity. Now, every time I've said anything about corporal punishment of children, someone on my f-list weighs in and disagrees with me, but when people say that they have 'only hit [their] children when they deserve it' or that children need to be 'programmed' before they turn 12, it makes me sick to the stomach. Far worse are the nutters who think that 'fuzzy, liberal' parenting causes delinquency. On the contrary, parental
neglect must have a far worse effect. My parents have never hit me or my sister (and I know that my father has never hit either of my half-sisters either), but that doesn't mean that we were left to fend for ourselves in a moral wasteland. Those morons who think that because my parents - bigger, stronger, in a more powerful position than I - didn't smack me when I was a child that I've somehow missed out on some key lessons on morality and correct conduct? I'd argue that they're far more morally bankrupt than I.
Please don't weigh in with the 'but you were a well-behaved child' argument. I've heard it before, and I think it's ridiculous. Sure, no two children are the same, but ultimately all (no matter what their personality and temperament) will benefit much more from a rational explanation of why doing whatever 'bad' thing is a bad idea than from a sharp slap. We are not Pavlov's dogs. Odd as it may seem, we don't actually need pain to teach us right from wrong.