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July 20, 2006

Beating Fundamentalism into your kids

Yup. Literally:

Family Integrity has produced a controversial eight-page booklet on how to use physical punishment under the present law.

Parents are told that smacking can be a "10-to-15-minute process" and that if a child reacts angrily, such as by slamming doors or "pouting", they should be smacked again.

"Smacking is meant to drive the foolishness, the sinful manifestations, out of the child's personality so that they do not become permanent fixtures," it says.

Smacking is justified because children younger than age eight "do not think straight" and lack a developed sense of fair play and duty.

Yeah..nothing cements a sense of "fair play" into a kid like hauling off a big, open-handed slap on their hindquarter. We wouldn't want do something like say, logical consequences so that kids could understand real life responsibility, perhaps?

The booklet even provides a special "how to" guide in case the smacker isn't smart enough to give the smackee enough of a wallop:

My personal favorite is bullet point #4: If the child is still angry after the smack, you haven't smacked them hard enough.

The good ol' beat your kids into submission routine.

Take it from someone who was beaten as a child, this doesn't work.

I was beaten under similar guidelines when I was growing up. Not only does it NOT eliminate anger--it pushes it to fester. And for kids with personalities like myself (controlling, competitive, stubborn and opinionated), it only makes it worse.

Posted by Carla at July 20, 2006 10:53 AM