To each his own, thats my motto. I will not hesitate to swat the rear of my toddler when needed, very seldomly is it needed (usually lowering my voice gets her attention.) You know what is worse than swatting her rear? Having someone force their opinion on you about whether or not you should spank. Not that Buttercup is doing that here, there is nothing wrong with debating your side of the arguement and providing facts to support it. What I am talking about are the people that belittle you as a parent because you 'lowered' yourself to spank. What those folks need to recognize is that it is not 'abuse' as far as any law is concerned, and that, as long as it is not illegal, it is my right to choose that method of punishment. Agree to disagree and move on. This arguement has been going on for years and years, and the vast majority of children have grown up to be normal adults.
What never ceases to amaze me is, for all the studys that are done, no one ever discusses how things are now as compared to the past. While you cant contribute it to one thing (like spanking or not spanking), there is an obvious difference in todays and yesterdays (20+ years ago) children. I dont remember growing up with police at school, worrys about school shootings, 11 year olds being charged with murder and rape, large numbers of children being on mood altering drugs (prescribed by doctors, anyway), etc.
So tell me, what is different today? Lots of things have changed, spanking is frowned on, national news reports on crimes more frequently and in deeper detail, TV shows are less family friendly, children are 'drugged' into compliance (ADD and ADHA - while it is a real problem, IMHO it is WAY OVERDIAGNOSED). Children are not raised to accept failure and move on, now everyone is a winner and no one accepts defeat anymore. The list goes on and on.
One thing I know of, from experience, is that an occasional spanking will correct the action without negative long term affects. I think I will stick with what I know works. All these studies regarding all these different things that have been done wrong in previous generations child raising don't seem to be improving the quality of children maturing into adulthood each day. If anything, todays young adults (as a whole) are less prepared for adulthood than any previous generation.....
Jeepin'