by Bev Parker

Created on: December 11, 2006   Last Updated: April 25, 2007

People who don't know the difference between spanking and "hitting", as it is often called, shouldn't spank. But the rest of us, people with any modicum of common sense, know it's virtually impossible keep your sanity and to raise a happy, well-mannered child without a spanking now and then.

The Bible admonishes parents not to "provoke children to wrath". I believe the most wrathful children I've ever known are those without boundaries, those whose parents are actually afraid to firmly correct their children and say what is and what is not acceptable behavior.

It is a terrible disservice to a child to let him go his own way. There is actually something horridly ugly and perverse about a screaming brat child with a mother who has no idea what to do. Motherhood is not easy, and mothers must do the hard thing. Consistent training and discipline, including spanking, is difficult. But all the time-outs and other silly manipulations in the world will rarely do as much good as a firm application of force to a child's bottom.

Let me say I do not advocate spanking babies to make them into little robots. I am talking about smacking bottoms for deliberate disobedience, or for dangerous behavior. Once your child is run over by a truck, it is much too late to try and explain why she must hold your hand in the parking lot, whether she likes it or not.

I taught my children about the importance of quick obedience using a chapter from "Little House on the Prairie." Pa and Ma told Laura and Mary to get down in the bottom of the wagon as they crossed a rapid river. Had they not obeyed immediately, they would have drowned. Laura and Mary learned early on that their parents expected to be obeyed.

Again, to quote the Bible, "The heart of a child is full of foolishness." This is foolishness that will lead, ultimately to death, if not corrected. And you simply do not reason with and explain and plead and cajole a two-year-old into wise behavior. You're the grown-up. Act like it.

Learn more about this author, Bev Parker.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.