I was never spanked as a child, have never felt compelled to spank M and wouldn't dream of spanking C. C has suffered horrific physical abuse and his request on his Wednesday Child's profile? He stated he didn't want a "hitting" mom. He was also sharing his lifebook with Grandma yesterday, pointed to the aunt who mostly raised him and said, "She used to beat me a lot." C is aggressive as it is, I would never want to encourage further aggression.

M isn't perfect, he's just always been easily redirected. He's also pretty laid back and mild mannered.

All that being said, while I don't believe that spanking all together is barbaric, I see it overused on a daily basis. I get so sick of peole referring to their children as "bad." I can't tell you how many times I run into someone and say, "How is the baby?" and the response is, "Oh she's great, just bad as heck." Culturally, I think in my community, spankings are overused and often just a lazy form of parenting. I see people every day who act like they hate their children. The screaming, the impatience, the intolerance when children act like well, children!

My B/F talks frequently of the spankings he received as a child. And what did it prevent? Nothing. He just got better at not getting caught. But he still believe in spankings as a way of "controlling" children. Ridiculous.

MM