LOL, you're right. There is a responsible and effective way to spank a child ON THE BUTT, no where else and no hitting in the face or anywhere but where is appropriate. It's a last resort if a kid disobeys and knowing the consequence instills a healthy fear in them.

Anymore, responsible parents are turned in for child abuse when they spank their kids.

Too many spankings will only annoy kids, few to none will spoil them so it's a training tool to be used wisely.

right on man.

Bravo, Nettle...the ripple effect...

I donno, my dad was a USMC Col. He got his masters degree in 1 year. He authors books that he is too humble to publish, but he writes constantly.
He plays a few musical instruments, he can illustrate, he has the ability to plan intricate things, ie. the missile defense in Alaska. He's retired now, he works with horses, has projects that he actively works on.

Yeah he used that kind of punishment to teach me to stay away from what was dangerous. And it worked.
Yay for him.

Nettle , if you are supposing that dumb parents produce dumb children, I would find it hard to disagree. If you are supposing that violent behaviour towards children inhibits learning ability, I would have to agree. What is the solution? Dumb, violent, people with little to no parenting skills should not have children! Is this a mystery to most people? I don't think so.

That was my first reaction as well, Nettle (by the way, you may have noticed that the first reply to your post here is from the lovely Eden I mentioned to you a day or two ago -- HI EDEN!!!).

I would be lying if I said that I had never spanked my kids...but it happened maybe once in a year and consisted of one swat to the buttocks area. I always went for volume over pain/force under the theory that a loud, scary SWAT! was sufficient to send the message that Dad was not going to DEBATE the issue at hand any longer, and we had moved to the "unquestioning obeyance" portion of the evening's program.

Perhaps even that was too much, but I always felt that having to resort to corporal punishment was an admission that I was not clever enough to find a more creative way of getting my message across as well as conveying an understanding of WHY their behavior or conduct was unacceptable.

good points

I completely agree.
I was raised being spanked and it helped discipline me for sure. and all my other friends whose parents didnt grow up in the US[like mine] agree with me as well.
Id like to know the group this study was based on because you cant have such a study as this and have it be so general. Kids IQ has so many factors that whether or not a child is spanked i believe is very irrelevant to the issue

i have noticed three year old kids don't care and don't use reason. but they do appreciate your attention and are capable of feeling remorse, if not guilt. i have a friend who only has one child, a three year old boy, and another with three girls, 15, 10, and 4.

i figure focusing on feeling remorse is better than feeling regret, self-doubt, and particularly anger, toward any "mistake". a kid should never think that their mistakes prove that they are dumber or less worthy of love. if anything the mistakes they make actually can prove how smart all children are. the tolerance level in any parent is more likely to fluctuate than the tolerance level in any three-year old. (but than again, i get to go home)

I agree, the experimental design is very flawed. You cannot isolate the "spanking" variable and draw widespread conclusions like this with only a few hundred participants.

Maybe the parents that resort to spanking are dumber; therefore, their kids are dumber. Makes sense, because more educated parents might rely on alternative discipline.

Smart kids might not misbehave as often or as severely, and, in turn, their parents might not feel the need to spank them.

It's easy to manipulate statistical data to say spanking makes your kids dumber, and it's even easier to agree with the study when it supports your preconceived ideas, e.g. eden49 (above). But, this study is based on bogus science.

my point precisely. when a person is considered an adult they should expect to be treated like one.

some people like to fuck around without any entertainment value because they are incapable communicating their emotions. well sometimes people (adults) need a lashing. not only for the offenders sake but for justice and the emotional satisfaction of the victim.

@acontradicsh1t

i noticed all you do is post very short, barely decipherable, statements that barely relate to anything but being pissed off at the world.

did you draw YOUR avatar? its disturbing......kind of reminds me of John Wayne Gacy. did you know he use to paint? we all use an avatar for one reason or another.

You don't have children do you eden? Well I was curious what the law thinks about this. I talked to the child, youth and families department in this state and talked to an investigator about it. I really wish I recorded it for you. When the issue of spanking a child is brought up, no where did he say that it is mentally damaging. You can legally open hand smack your toddlers bottom with no long term effects. He suggested that a parent should stop spanking around the age of 6 because that is when the child would associate being in trouble with pain instead of the consequences of their action. I agree with him at that point because the consequences can out weigh the physical punishment when the child is old enough to comprehend these things. Yet all in all, there was nothing about a lowered IQ. Lady, when you have a child, I highly doubt you're going to talk to a two year old about the consequences of running into traffic repetitively when they won't sit still and keep screaming in your face and physically hurting you. It gets to the point that a smack on the ass is actually less hurtful than the actual consequences like burning their hand on the stove, running into traffic, trying to get a hold of sharp objects, etc. If you have a kid like mine, the child locks don't work. Well they do, but not for her. Heights are limitless, and she is intelligent enough to figure how these things work within 3 tries, and sometimes, sometimes you can't keep her away from hot things, like the fireplace. My house is child proof, but to the point that I can't reach the objects that I put out of her reach.