by Kathleen Lenore Arnason

Created on: May 10, 2008

I'm the crazy hippie bitch who doesn't let her babies/kids cry, even for a minute, so it shouldn't surprise anyone that there is also NO spanking in my house. The rule I live by? Break the cycle, any way you can.

My kids are now 27, 25, 17, boy, girl, boy, and I bet if you asked them they would say they were okay with not being spanked. Never had a bloody lip from me, no pants pulled down at the age of 14 and whipped, no bare-bottomed lashings with the old rubber shoes. I am so PROUD of that!

I threatened my kids, I yelled, I slammed doors and threw tupper-ware at unbreakable surfaces, but I did not lower myself to what my parents did. Hitting, slapping, whacking, whipping, using belts, shoes, wooden spoons, hairbrushes, kitchen implements, hands, feet and fingernails, thanks mom, great weapons you got there.

I know it's how they were raised. I know they didn't know any better. I loved both of my Grandma/Amma so much, it hurt my heart. But I knew when I grew up that that is where my parents learned to hit and yell and be mean to kids. I decided not to do it. I just was not going to do it. I didn't know about Oprah and Gary Zukov or anything. My kids didn't know how to do it differently. Neither did I. But I did it somehow, and I don't know how. I stopped it. I remember being 10 years old and telling myself..."I want to have babies and kids, and I will NEVER hit them or be mean to them like this."

All 3 of my birth kids and all of the kids I worked with in social services have been fine and I never hit/disciplined any of them in any way. All I did was love them and give them all the knowledge I could as fast and as best as I knew how. Hitting was not an option.

It's a crime.

Unfortunately, a lot of parents, social workers and social services employees are too anciently educated or ignorantly inclined to know this.

Many government policies and programs involve punitive and legal repercussions for kids who act out in obvious ways from abuse.

Experience and education show that putting car thieves and violent teen offenders behind bars in the wonderful (sarcastic) youth centers and alternative placements staffed with young and inexperienced workers is not only a failure driven stop-gap measure, it's a stepping stone for young bored offenders to learn and implement new and more exciting criminal behaviour on release.

I digress. My solution to the child/teen crime problems in any/our society?...

Give out free basketballs, free swimming passes, soccer balls, trips to horse ranches, go-cart races, baseball equipment, and sports clothing.

I never hit my kids. They never did anything wrong. Intelligence = success. DUH!

I dare you to argue with me.............

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