Spanking and Children

I am watching on CNN a discussion on spanking children by someone that has written a book on "biblical chastisement."  He has written a book called "To Train Up a Child."  What most people miss is that in the bible when it talks about "spare the rod and spoil the child" they think of rod = stick.  For those who study languages it is known that in the biblical sense rod = scriptures.  This brings about a whole new meaning.  Families that leave religion out of the children's learning are not providing the essential elements that the scriptures state are necessary.

I might have mentioned this before but spanking itself is not bad but needs to be limited to the very few times when it might be used appropriately.  When teaching parenting skills classes I usually tell parents they can spank a child three times in their growing up years.  Make sure it is for something that is really important, don't waste it.  The result has been that parents have let me know that because of the limit they found themselves always finding some more effective method of disciplining (teaching) because they were sure that something more important would come along where spanking might be needed.

One of my favorite cartoons has a father with his child over his knee.  As he is spanking the child, the parent is saying, "How many times do I have to tell you, NEVER HIT ANYONE!"