Who Needs a Spanking? (Alexia's Books)

Product Information

If uncertain, reconsider bare bottom spanking and spank over the child's clothing instead, and don't spank in any ritualized manner. The use of spanking often isn’t the best approach — hopefully you’ve found some other tools that can help. Family Routines helps parents get their kids to help them manage the house — and also get into positive routines that make daily life easier. For example, if your child keeps pushing people while playing, take the toy away for now and tell them why.

We need to be intentional about the discipline strategies we choose and make sure they aren’t adding unnecessary stress.

I don’t know where the line is for “sparing the rod and spoiling the child” but I, personally, don’t think a kid should get lashes for every offense. Parents who are really good at providing choices have children who are more compliant and good at making decisions! Also, consider taking out any items in your pockets that may make it uncomfortable for your child to lie across your lap, and the same goes for your child. And it isn’t a skill you learn while training to be a licensed marriage family therapist, for instance. Spanking can be a tool we use to adjust behaviors in young children, but I do not believe that it should be used often.

A 2009 study from the University of New Hampshire said that children who were spanked had lower IQs than those who weren’t. From being picked last in gym class to not being as popular as another classmate, you probably understand, to some degree, what it's like to feel out of place. Taylor notes: “Just as you wouldn’t go into talk therapy with your partner [as your therapist], it’s best not to try spanking therapy with your partner. How spanking has these effects comes down to the release of feel-good endorphins and hormones such as oxytocin, dopamine, and adrenaline. And although we may want to “win” battles with our children over misbehavior, to do so in a way that makes them afraid, unsettled, and unstable?A few generations ago, if you acted out in class, you could have been met with a paddle or yardstick to the bottom–and possibly gone home with bruises.