Well, we can analyze this one to death.
Why does the bigger (in this case, older and wiser) person do the disciplining? Because the bigger person happens to be the
parent in charge of directing, teaching, correcting etc. Seems a little wierd to think that the child should have equal authority to spank a parent
.
And, guess what, contrary to popular anti-spanking belief, there is living proof all around me, and all of you, everyday, that
proper spanking of a child DOES NOT make them aggressive or teach them to hit. I bet if soemone did a study of all the great families that used spanking as a discipline apropriately, they would find a WHOLE different statistic than the ones stated in this thread.
This thread has been so interesting, up to this point, but start bringing in the "bigger person hitting the little person" argument, and it just gets really, really tired. That's when it's obvious that someone's personal issues with abuse are getting mixed in with the opinion on what someone else is doing with their child. Just because someone was abused as a child, or hit as a child, does not mean that children who are spanked by their parents in a healthy household, are feeling abused, or hit by their parents, or confused about whether their parents love them. I guarentee, if you asked my kids if their parents hit them, they would say "absolutely not". And I guarentee, they are not the least bit confused about our love for them, nor do they feel some sort of shock and confusion about being spanked, as if it's opposite of our loving actions. And this is not just true for my own family, it is true for many, many families I know and many I work with.
Now, I don't want someone jumping on my post, and tearing it apart, just because they have personal issues from their childhood and want to label every child getting spanked as being hit by their parents.
This thread isn't really about that, anyway. It's regarding whether spanking is NECESSARY to be a good Christian parent. The answer to that is: absolutely not. It's not necessary. But, it's not wrong either. Or bad, or "hitting" or abusing, or producing aggressive children, or any other negative generalization you want to put on "spanking". The proof is living and active and surrounding us.....
It's so sad these threads always have to take "that turn"........because, this could continue to be such an interesting, rich discussion.