To Spanke, Or Not To Spank

spank, or not to spank? “When it comes to rearing children, no debate is more contentious -- or longer running -- than the dispute over spanking” (Goode 2001). This is a long discussed question that has been debated, studied and picked apart for quite some time. Where do you stand? Where do I stand? Is spanking used for discipline considered abuse or is it not? Let’s trek through this topic and see where your answers stand at the end.

First, let us begin to define what spanking is; “remarkable of its kind” or “being fresh and strong” as the Merriam Webster dictionary states. However, this is not the relevant use of the term “spanking” in which I am about to discuss. The term spanking when used as an adjective first appeared in the year 1787 (“Spanking”), and was used as an expressive term for something being fancied. For example; someone commenting on how “spanking” clean my house is. Whereas when used as a noun, the term spank first came about in the year 1712 and is defined as “to strike especially on the buttocks with the open hand” (“Spanking”).

The history of spanking from generation to generation has changed tremendously over the decades. There was a point in time where spanking was considered an integral part of discipline and it was not considered to be abusive in nature. My dad used to tell me stories of when he was a child and was always spanked for misbehaving - then even I grew up in a home where spanking was the normal reprimand for disobedience. For now, we won’t focus so much on my life experience with spanking but rather to point out both the good and the bad - the “pros and cons”, would you, of spanking in the form of discipline. The point that I am attempting to show in this paper is that the use of spanking in...

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...orrect way to discipline your child.

To conclude I ask, "To spank, or not to spank?", and I ask it because it is something of importance and people should be fully educated on the topic before making a concrete decision for how to discipline. I am not yet a parent but I have seen the difference between those children who are spanked for discipline, as opposed to those who are not. This is important to me because I have always felt only one way about spanking, and now I can see the good and the bad to both arguments equally. My beliefs are my own, just as your beliefs are your own and admittedly while researching this topic my knowledge of spanking was only broadened and my opinion on spanking a little less prejudice. Where you stand on the subject of spanking is your own personal belief and there is no right or wrong to whichever trend you feel more prone towards.