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Spanking - How old is too old?
Filed under: Big Kids, Tweens, Teens, Health & Safety: Babies, In The News
Spanking is a hot topic around here. Some consider it to be an effective and perfectly acceptable form of discipline. Others wouldn't dream of hitting a child and consider it abuse. Many fall somewhere in between and speak of a fine line being between hitting a child in anger and doling out carefully considered discipline.
But one aspect of spanking that I haven't seen debated is this: at what age does spanking become just plain old violence against another human being? According to police in Portland, Maine, spanking your 20-year-old child is not discipline, it's domestic violence.
50-year-old James Phipps found this out after he got angry over his daughter's $5,000 cell phone bill. Investigators say he repeatedly spanked his daughter with his hand. His daughter then ran upstairs to call her boyfriend and another scuffle broke out when the daughter tried to take the dad's cell phone away.
Phipps has been charged with domestic violence for doing something to his adult daughter that many parents do to their little children every day. Granted, it does sound like he reacted in anger and crossed that 'fine line' mentioned above. But parents spank their children in anger all the time and it isn't considered a crime. What makes this different?
But one aspect of spanking that I haven't seen debated is this: at what age does spanking become just plain old violence against another human being? According to police in Portland, Maine, spanking your 20-year-old child is not discipline, it's domestic violence.
50-year-old James Phipps found this out after he got angry over his daughter's $5,000 cell phone bill. Investigators say he repeatedly spanked his daughter with his hand. His daughter then ran upstairs to call her boyfriend and another scuffle broke out when the daughter tried to take the dad's cell phone away.
Phipps has been charged with domestic violence for doing something to his adult daughter that many parents do to their little children every day. Granted, it does sound like he reacted in anger and crossed that 'fine line' mentioned above. But parents spank their children in anger all the time and it isn't considered a crime. What makes this different?
| Yes, spanking is for little kids. | |
|---|---|
| No, if a child misbehaves, a parent can spank. | |
| Come on - spanking is a HORRIBLE thing to do. |
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ReaderComments (Page 2 of 2)
8-10-2008 @ 12:19AM
Heza Hekele said...Dad paying for his 20 yr old daughter's cell phone? 20 yr old who doesn't have enough self control to keep the bill under 5K? There seems to be higher levels of dysfunction in this family than the physical violence that took place.
Reply
8-10-2008 @ 4:42PM
Brandi said...Ok, if you have to spank your kids, at any age, then maybe you need some parenting classes. There are way better forms of discipline. My 4 yr old step-daughters worst fear from me and her father is being banished at a corner for 4 minutes. And that always seems to straighten out the problem. Or we sit down and explain to her that what she is doing is not appropriate (or naughty), and that if she dose it again, it will call for a time out.
Reply
8-11-2008 @ 10:01PM
Diane said...As long as the child is under the age of 18 it is a parents right to spank their child. The last time I got spanked I was 17. I don't remember why I would bet spanked, but I do remember that it worked because I never got the belt taken to me twice for the same reason. And it only took a couple of wacks with the belt to get the point across.
Reply
8-14-2008 @ 6:57PM
Sofie said...I was smacked up until just after my 18th birthday by my parents and i have to admit although i hated every one of em, they prob did me good, and they were always deserved.
i think it depends on the child, because some kids mature faster and so no longer need them, some kids smacking just doesn't work and other kids smacking stops working after a certain age.
I guess my answer is, smack until they no longer need or deserve them unless they clearly don't work for your child in which case find another way to show them what they did wrong.
Sofie
Reply