Apparently, some states have started to outlaw corporal punishment in children, which includes – but is not limited to – spanking. Uh oh, alarm bells! What if we decide to raise our child here? It’s not that I know jack about raising kids. Having younger cousins have offered me plenty of opportunities to observe parenting practices by my relatives. Also, I’ve often had to dish out my own brand of discipline to my nephews and niece (hubby’s side). What I’m worried about is the likelihood of me spending a night in jail just because my kid called me in for spanking him/her.
Perhaps it’s the way I was brought up – and now it has transcended to my own views on child discipline – I cannot imagine raising a kid by ’sparing the rod’, so to speak. Oh sure, a little bit of spoiling is inevitable, after all anak mo yun, but a reasonable form of discipline is a requirement for me. Some friends and colleagues used to tell me that I am only able to say this because I haven’t got a child yet, and I often used to reply that having one will not change this – and I stand by that…”itaga mo pa sa bato”.
Call me antiquated but I feel very strongly about this issue, and my feelings are even more validated whenever I see kids as young as 4 or 5 talk back to their parents and throw a tantrum when they hear the word “No”. Tapos mapapanood mo pa si “Super Nanny” sa TV, 
.
Oh I’m all for talking/explaining stuff to your kid first, making them understand the consequences of their actions, and assuring them that you only want what’s best for them and you know better, yada yada yada, but then this is a kid you’re dealing with and sometimes (ok let’s face it, oftentimes is more like it) having fun will always trump listening to reason, so at this point, what do you do? Most of the parents I see here either ignore their kid’s tantrums, threaten to withdraw a treat, or just continue to firmly say “No” or “Stop” over and over again. Napapailing na lang kami ni B eh. We’re in the same page when it comes to this issue.
So what do you do? Me? I’d issue an ultimatum - you don’t do as I say and you get a spanking. Oh, and if you give me lip about it, I’m gonna make sure it hurts too!
It’s not as if I’m alone in this mindset, di lang sa Pilipinas, kahit naman dito eh. Kaso nga, it seems more and more parents out there believe in just “talking” to their child. I guess, to each his own. Still, the government shouldn’t really interfere with how I discipline my child as long as I do not take corporal punishment to the extreme. Tama na yung palo sa puwet (not even with a belt) dahil sa isang paslit, tatanim na yun sa utak niya.
Yun lang, thank you.
“Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die. Punish him with the rod and save his soul from death” (Proverbs).
Posted by dphatgirl on December 21, 2007 at 3:44 PM
Yun na nga eh, komplikado na nga magpalaki ng bata eh pakekelaman ka pa ni ‘Big Brother’ di ba? Maiintindihan ko yung grave physical abuse, pero pati spanking??? Weird.
Posted by Meeya on December 21, 2007 at 2:17 PM
my kiddo is 4 years old, hanggang ngayon i still don’t know kung ano ang stand ko regarding this issue.
we tried everything from spanking, to talking, to time outs, to withholding toys, etc. sometimes it works sometimes hindi. as a matter of fact, i stopped giving her palo na kasi one time she hit me when i wasn’t listening to her, yikes! gantihan daw ba, hehe. so, paano ba talaga? e i don’t want to send her the wrong message na its good to hit other people in order to ensure compliance, haha!
parenting is talagang a hit and miss thing (pardon the pun), at least for me. in terms of discipline, i think we can use any kind of means to teach our kids the important lesson of having limits. yun naman ang essence ng discipline di ba? limitations – that she can do this, but not that – because she’ll get hurt, or others will get hurt, or its not appropriate, or walang pambili ang parents, hehe.