H S For Sunday 030208

I’m OK. You?

Hey folks,

In the Health and Science segment this week we have more experts telling you how to raise your kids. More psychobabble. Yup, more of the PC, Liberal, feel good, well, bunk. According to Reuters - Spanking children can lead to problems later in life

Parents who teach tough love by disciplining their children with spankings could be making them more likely to have sexual problems as teenagers and adults, a leading researcher said.

OK I was spanked. Today my Grandmother would probably be charged child abuse. I have no “Sexual side effects.” If you were, do you?

Professor Murray Straus, of the University of New Hampshire, found that children who are spanked or experience other corporal punishment have a raised risk as teenagers and adults to verbally or physically coerce a partner into having sex.

OH. I misunderstood. Since I was spanked as a Child, I’m at high risk of being a rapist.

“It's more evidence that parents should not spank if the wellbeing of their children is at stake,” he said in an interview.

Straus analyzed the results of the International Dating Violence Study, a survey of more than 14,000 university students at 68 universities in 32 countries. The students were asked if they had been spanked or hit frequently before age 12 and if they had coerced a sexual partner in the previous 12 months.

Men who had experienced corporal punishment were four times more likely to physically coerce a partner into having sex, than those who had not experienced a lot of corporal punishment.

Why are these men not in jail? Would this NOT mean they RAPED these people? What does physical coercion mean?

Physical coercion includes holding someone down or hitting them. Women who had experienced corporal punishment were also more likely to coerce sex from a partner than those who had not been spanked.

So they RAPED someone?

“People generalize that the use of coercion, physical coercion, is okay. They learn that from people they love and respect - their parents,” said Straus, who presented the findings at a summit of the American Psychological Association.

Empty, unrealistic, illogical, psychobabble.

Both men and women who had experienced corporal punishment as children were less than 10 percent more likely than those who had not been spanked to verbally coerce sex from a partner.

Straus said studies have shown that corporal punishment leads to low self control and self esteem, as well as aggressiveness, antisocial personalities and the understanding that violence is okay which may lead to sexual coercion.

{Sigh} Do you really buy this agenda driven bunk?

He added that there are alternative ways to discipline children that work better and do not have side effects.

Notice he did not say what. So what does he really feel about spanking? What about the States that allow this?

“The laws that also allow the physical punishment of children do not magically make hitting a child a better 'wrong' thing to do or the 'lesser of two bad things'. They only allow it. They state that parental physical aggression is not illegal. But hitting children is not tender or compassionate treatment. Hitting children is not better than treating them in ways that do not hurt. It does not model the way we want our children to act. Some day our society will be kinder, gentler and less violent when we all stop hitting children. To stop hitting children will mean, by the very extermination of the practice, that we will be less violent.

Of course, most of us do not say to our children, hitting is right or hitting is a good thing to do. We do not really believe that it is a good thing to hit people. Most of us deny that we are 'in favor' of hitting children. However, most of us also behave as if it is a good thing to do. Most of us are in favor of spanking and physical punishment. And the law attempts to make a physical attack on a child's body a thing that is all right to do.

The way a spanking looks and feels must be confusing for children. How can they tell what it means? Parents are their example of what is right and good. Parents' behavior is their example of what love looks and feels like. Hitting a child seems to say that it is all right to hit people... even loved ones. When a person wants to control others, it must be okay to hit them, spanking seems to say. For children whose parents tell them that hitting is wrong, hitting might also seem to say that it is all right to do something that is wrong. It certainly does not show or say to the child what behavior is wanted.”

He is on a crusade. So what his study shows, has to be questioned. How did he chose this group? What were the questions? How did he research their backgrounds? By the way, when I was spanked, it was neither confusing nor did I wonder why I was being spanked. I was fully aware of what I did. Yes, I did deserve it. Every time I might add. {Smile}

“There is no obligation or duty to hit children. No one of us can show that anything bad happens if we do not hit children. No one can show that children become less well behaved if we do not hit them.”

Ever heard “Spare the Rod, spoil the child?” So what works? According to the good Professor. The standard Liberal belief system. Throw awards {Money} at the problem. Be nice and talk. Just you know, reason with them and they will be good people.

“When people think of not hitting children, however, they often feel afraid and uncertain. What do they fear? Are they just uncomfortable with the unknown or the untried? Do they just doubt what they have not yet experienced? They do not really know that anything bad will happen. It is enough for them, it seems, that they believe that something bad will happen. Since people usually do not really think about many of their beliefs, it is hard to use reason to help them to be unafraid. But there is no evidence that a child whose parents model appropriate behavior, clearly and unambiguously love and nurture that child, diligently encourage and positively reinforce desired behavior, using reason and persuasion while consistently communicating and enforcing limits, and demonstrating a rational process for problem solving, will not turn out as well, if not better, than any child held up as the supposed example of the benefit of spanking her or him.”

Sorry, if I was spanked, I never did the same thing twice. I’m not advocating BEATING your child. Obviously. I’m just saying you should feel free to raise your children the way you see fit. If I feel it necessary, you better bet that I will spank my Son. He will not be confused nor will he NOT know why. I will be willing to bet, if it comes to that magnitude, he will NOT do it again.
Peter

Sources:
Reuters - Spanking children can lead to problems later in life
Professor Lib. - Neverhitachild.org