Is Spanking A Reasonable Parental Punishment?
There can be a very fine line between discipline and abuse, a line that is crossed when spanking comes into play. Hitting, no matter what, should be considered child abuse. It is the act of an adult taking out their frustrations on someone much smaller, weaker, and emotionally unprepared. Even in the best circumstances it can be damaging to the child.
In Canada an anti-spanking bill has been passed by the Senate and is heading to the House of Commons. The bill is an attempt to remove a section of Canada’s criminal code that allows parents and caregivers to use “reasonable force” against their children. The problem is what exactly is reasonable force? Here ins the states a court ruled that it was reasonable parental disciple when a mother beat her son with an extension cord and left bruises. Clearly there is not one size fits all definition of what is reasonable and what is criminal.
There is an interesting article here discussing the anti-spanking bill and the differences between using force to hurt a child or to stop them from hurting themselves. For me the difference is between grabbing my child’s arm and pulling because they are touching something of mine or because they are running out into the street.
Corporal punishment is the use of physical force with the intention of causing a child to experience pain but not injury for the purposes of correction or control of the child’s behaviour.
The line between acceptable corporal punishment and dangerous physical abuse is usually drawn in the sand on a blustery day; there are no guidelines. Physical abuse is the infliction of physical injury through punching, kicking, beating, biting, burning, shaking or otherwise harming a child.
Whether a parent or caregiver did not intend to cause harm doesn’t make it more acceptable. In the end, it’s about one person asserting power over another and there’s nothing healthy in that dynamic.
There is another quote that I absolutely love, one that I wish more parents would think of when disciplining their children.
While immediate compliance is often what we’re after when we discipline, parents need to promote children’s ability to control their behaviour using internal controls because these are skills that are more important to long-term socialization.
We want children to behave well not because they don’t want to get hit, an external motivator, but because they have internalized socially appropriate ways of behaving. Knowing what the right way to behave is on the inside is enhanced by parental discipline strategies that use minimal parental power, promote choice and autonomy, and provide explanations for desirable behaviours.
In the end parents need to look honestly and completely at what they are doing when they choose to spank. What are they teaching their children about right and wrong? What are they teaching their children about power over and physical violence? And what are the long term possibilities.
spanking, abuse, Canada, anti-spanking bill



June 21st, 2008 at 2:45 pm
AHA! I actually know what “reasonable force” is here in Canada.
Five hits or less that don’t leave a mark, or a mark that fades in a short time. I think it also has to be your hand, and not a substitute.
And I know this because our oldest went to a private church school that had corporal punishment. yeah. And then we decided to homeschool.
June 21st, 2008 at 10:43 pm
Thanks for clarifying that Andrea! Yikes, no wonder you went to homeschooling.
June 22nd, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Sad that they spell it out so much though, huh? Or that they have to?
September 6th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
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December 29th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
You know this is the reason that children are so screwed up these days, is because there is no physical retribution for misbehaving. “spare the rod, spoil the child” is a biblical principal. I don’t understand these people trying to reason with their three and four year old children. Pop their but and put them in the corner!! In real life there is physical retribution for not doing the right thing, if we dont go to work we don’t eat, if we break the law we go to jail, if we fight the police, we get beat down, cuffed and dragged to time out! Our job as parents is to instill that within them. It makes me sick when I see a child at the store calling their mother names, and misbehaving, and the parent does not do anything to them. The fact is that when that child grows up, and calls another person a foul name or steals, or hits someone, they could get the crap beat out them! Which is worse a spanking now or getting beat up later? People need to quit letting their children walk all over them, and lay down the laws before they grow up not having any fear of the consequences of their actions!!!