Sanity

"Discipline at first seems hard, not only to the person being disciplined, but also to the person doing the discipline. So often we shy away from the reality that of those choices up in that list of what motivates actions, we have to choose the hard ones."

--Like Mother, Like Daughter

In a world (or internet) where I've seen everything about discipline from using a switch on 1-year-olds (honestly, who thinks that's okay?) to never speaking firmly to your child lest it harm his developing psyche, here from a mom of many is an article on spanking that makes a bunch of sense. It pretty much says what I think about spankings but I have never been able to put it so well.

You should go on over to Like Mother, Like Daughter (in the sidebar) and check out THEIR sidebar for the rest of the discipline series. Most well-written, most sensible.

Might I mention for the record that I only ever spanked a kid I babysat once... when he kicked me in the chest. Hard. The spanking wasn't hard, it was just instantaneous. He, his brother, and his sister all stared at me as though I had suddenly acquired a third head. Then I snuggled all three of them very lovingly, we watched cartoons, and I never, ever got sass (or a kick) from them again. Something to think about.

Of course, MY children will never need/have never needed spankings...

(...I'm lying...shamelessly...)

...but it's good to think about all this anyway.

Cheers,

Breanna