Spanking Persuasive Essay

Did you know that over half of the population spanks their children? The idea of using spanking as a punishment has raised controversy among parents. Spanking is the use of an open hand to strike someone and many parents want it to become illegal. While spanking has some down sides, it should remain legal because making it illegal would be difficult to enforce, and there are already laws against child abuse. The main reason people want spanking to become illegal is because they believe that it leads to child abuse. They argue that people spank their kids out of anger instead of using it as a disciplinary method, and it is not right to be able to hit a child even if they are misbehaving. “Children are the only class that is unprotected”

According to a Huffington Post article, “time-outs generally only work in positive contexts” (Wenner). Also, in his book “A Case Against Spanking,” Irwin A. Hyman claims “that if time-out becomes routine it will lose its effectiveness” (Hyman 134). Another fault with time-out is the fact that it does not work in public. When you are at the grocery store or a public event and your kid is acting out, how do you discipline them? You cannot stick them in time-out or take their toys away, but you can give them a swat on the butt to get them to

One of the biggest flaws would be that it would be difficult to enforce such a law. There would have to be a way to monitor each household to know if spanking was taking place. However, that is not realistic. Nobody goes around checking houses for meth, or domestic violence unless there is suspicion. It is likely that they will not check for spanking either. Also, to what extent would the law be enforced? What would be the consequences of breaking the law? If you gave your child a light smack on the hand would they be taken away from you? Questions like these are major. If the whole point is to do what is best for the child, then taking them away from their parents for something harmless is contradictory. Research shows that when kids are taken away from their homes it has as many psychological effects as the abuse itself. The children who are on the edge of going to foster care end up better if they are allowed to stay with their families. The problem lies in finding an effective way to carry out the law. An alternative way to keep parents from turning spanking into abuse is to require new parents to take an informational class. It can be held at the hospital and right before the parents take the baby home for the first time they go to the class. There, an expert can teach them the difference between child abuse and spanking. This would raise awareness of the problem and still allow parents