Quote Originally Posted by NightLad View Post
Neither I nor my sister were ever spanked, and certainly never belted. We did have a ‘time out’ chair that worked pretty well, even though I had fantasies of chopping it into firewood when I missed part of Care Bears. However, my parents were far from lax in their parenting. I saw my first ‘horror’ movie (“Pet Cemetery,” although I could only finish half of it) at the age of 12, and junk-food was a no-no.

In contrast, I knew a boy who was punished with spanking whenever he’d do something wrong, and he is currently unable to return to the country due to outstanding warrants. His parents were also quite good folks, and I don’t fault them for spanking him if they felt that was what he needed to lean,* but clearly somewhere along the way he didn’t.

People are individuals and while I think we should definitely be asking the parents where they were at the time, the kids should be held just as accountable. Any good parents out there with a troubled teen can tell you that even when you bend over backwards to help, they can still go off and make the wrong choices. “You can lead a horse to water…” and all that, I guess.

* I believe parents should be able to raise their children as they see fit, including spanking, within reason. Obviously outright abuse shouldn’t be acceptable, but I understand that is not what we are talking about.
Great point. Not all kids learn from spanking. Even the best intentions raising a child backfires. Yet, as I watch peoples children scream and cuss them, out running all hours of the night, I have to think it's because for most cases, the parents have lost touch with who is supposed to run the household. In most bad cases they had coddled the child too much creating a self centered little monster with no regard for others. Kudos to the parent that can raise a good child without being physical.