by Crystal Bustamante

Created on: June 18, 2009

Perhaps one of the greatest parenting debates of our time involves the use of corporal punishment. It has for the most part been a very heated debate from the beginning with advocates of spanking declaring that it is a personal family matter and should be left up to the individual parents to use the methods that work best with their children. On the other hand, opponents have gone as far as declaring that spanking should be made illegal. Effectively declaring that any form of corporal punishment is child abuse and should be treated as such.

The purpose of this article is to briefly discuss a few of the main reasons why a parent should not spank their child and to provide you with some alternatives to use in disciplining your child. However, before we begin, I would like to explain the difference between punishment and discipline. By laying this foundation, you will be able to better understand why a parent or caregiver should never spank a child.

Punishment, according to Webster, is "any pain, suffering or loss inflicted on a person because of a crime or offense". One does not have to look any farther than the successful rehabilitation rate of state and federal prisons to realize that while punishment is a deterrent for some, it is rarely a strong motivator in getting people to choose right from wrong.

In the same light, spanking, when used as corporal punishment, may deter or stop the offense briefly; however, it is rarely a successful means of changing the behavior. Many children, especially young children, will commit the same offense in the future.

Discipline, on the other hand, is defined as: "training to act in accordance with rules". The main goal of discipline is training the child to choose behavior that is both acceptable and appropriate. Another goal of discipline is to instill in children the necessary morals to aid them in making right decisions throughout life. As a parent, your main goal should be to discipline your children and not simply punish offenses.

If this your goal, the following is a list of reasons why spanking your child will not help you acheive that goal:

Spanking tends to be an outside motivator with very little, if any, internal results.

When I was a child there was a belt hanging on the kitchen wall that served as a constant reminder that my mother expected us to behave. While the belt rarely came down off the wall, we were always consciencely aware of it. As a result, there were many behaviors that I

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