A friend linked to this Australian study showing that most parents still spank their kids. I’m not surprised by this at all.
For me, and I’d like to think most parents, you feel bad when you spank, but you do it because you think you have to, that it’s the only way to raise a child to become a healthy adult. I learned that that isn’t the case, and that spanking was a counter-productive means to that end.
I wasn’t spanking because I wanted to be mean, I was spanking because I thought it would “work”. Once I learned it didn’t, it was easy for me stop. I wasn’t married to it, or punishment, as a tool, and I don’t think most parents are either. That’s where education comes in, and where this website comes in.
Read Kohn’s work “Unconditional Parenting“, watch his DVD presentation, and peruse Jan Hunt’s and Naomi Aldort’s archives of articles. If you spank and punish, your parenting is broken. So fix it.
