babble » blogs » Strollerderby
Strollerderby
In Britain, many parents advocate harsher punishment in schools
Corporal punishment is not allowed in British classrooms (unlike in the U.S. where some schools still allow teachers to paddle children).
In a recent study, nearly half of British parents thought teachers ought to be allowed to cane or switch children who get too out of line. Seriously, nearly half. Forty-nine percent, to be exact. Perhaps unsurprisingly, only nineteen percent of students thought corporal punishment was a good idea.
It’s not an idea teachers support. Teachers unions want more support for teachers in classrooms, and clearer guidance about discipline, but they don’t want to hit kids.
I don’t know what British schools are like, but it’s hard to imagine a classroom situation that could be improved by empowering the teacher to hit the students. Continue reading »
Townsville boy's "I'm A Thief" Sign
Parents in Australia are up in arms after a mother made her ten-year-old son wear a sign in a public park that read “Do not trust me. I will steal from you as I am a thief.”
The single mother of three, now known Down Under as the “Tough Love Mum”, says her son has been shoplifting since he was seven years old and that she has done everything she can to get him to stop, including having him speak with police, taking him to counseling and taking him to visit a juvenile detention center. She decided to make him wear the sign after finding he had stolen some chocolates from a store. She made him stand in a busy area called The Strand for an hour, during which some passersby pointed and laughed at him.
Would you ever spank your child?
Over at the Stir today, Linda Sharps has some interesting things to say about spanking. She’s in a similar position to my own. She doesn’t spank her kids, and doesn’t see the day coming where she ever will.
But she says she understands better now why some people do it, and doesn’t feel comfortable saying it’s always wrong for all families all of the time.
For myself, I find that the longer I’m a mom, the less willing I am to sit in judgement about other people’s parenting choices on just about everything. I know what’s right for me and my family. I know how hard it is to show up and keep doing the right things, day after day. I know there’s a broad range of right choices, and that all parents make mistakes.
It’d be nice if there were just a clean, clear answer to the spanking debate. Turns out, there might well be.
It seems that spanking used to be more common (and acceptable) than it is today
For some reason, I don’t exactly equate spanking with child abuse. I had plenty of friends who got spanked or had their punishments meted out with belts when we were kids. I’m not condoning either one, and yet I never thought of them as abused kids, per say.
That being said, I’d never spank (or hit or beat or whip or grab or pinch or smack or slap) my kids. I think if you hit a kid in anger, the kid in turn learns to hit in anger. And while I find it hard to stand in judgment of how other parents choose to discipline their kids, I can’t imagine what toddlers can do that’s so terrible that a parent feels that laying a hand on them will really make it better. Furthermore, it breaks my heart to think of a kid my daughter’s age or younger being punished in a physical fashion.
A judge in Texas seems to feels the same way, having issued a “stern warning” to a mom who admitted to spanking her 2-year-old daughter.
Continue reading »
Is it okay to discipline other people's kids?
It’s another beautiful day at the playground, but one kid is being really rude to your child. Would you step in and have a word with that kid?
Okay, so you don’t want to be the meanie mom on the playground who’s yelling at everybody else’s kids while perceiving your own child as a little angel, but do you think it’s okay to discipline other people’s children?
A lively discussion on the Today show about whether or not it’s okay to discipline other people’s kids resulted in some very different viewpoints on the matter. Continue reading »
Mommy rage. If you’ve never felt it, you can probably skip this article. But if you’ve ever been gripped by the uncontrollable urge to throw a full-scale tantrum of your own in response to a power struggle with a three-year-old, read on.
Dear Sugar, who makes me cry with some regularity, has written a stunning column in response to a mom grappling with her own mommy rages. It’s normal to feel this way, is the message. The trick is to forgive yourself and then do whatever it takes to be the mom you want to be. You know, the one who doesn’t actually implode and scream at her kids.
Would you spank this child?
Do you ever really want to spank your kids? Whether you do or not, the impulse to simply smack the little angels can be strong sometimes.
Of course, no responsible parent hits a child in anger. Even parents who use spanking as a discipline tool are clear that the parent doing the spanking needs to be calm and collected when doling out the punishment.
But as essayist Krista Pfeiffer says in her essay for Babble, sometimes the temptation to spank a child can be extremely strong. Spanking seems like such a quick, simple way out of some gnarly discipline problems.
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Wendy Michaels 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
The Walt Disney Company supports Babble as a platform dedicated to honest, engaged, informed, intelligent and open conversation about parenting. However, the opinions expressed on this site are those of individual parents/writers and do not reflect the views of Disney. In addition, content provided on this site is for entertainment or informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or safety advice.
7