PSA:
Hitting children is wrong. Full stop.
If you can’t think of a better way to discipline a child, a tiny human who is smaller than you, you need to re-evaluate your approach.
There is NOTHING that a child, who is on the losing end of the power imbalance, can do that warrants striking them. Ever.
Children are an oppressed class of humans. They have no rights, very little protections, and they are among the most vulnerable. Many adults even argue that they don’t have the right to exist in public (which is a very anti-woman argument, but I digress). They are not property, they are people. Full human beings who are looking to you for guidance. You do not have a right to hit another human. It is illegal to strike another adult, so why is it OK to hit a child?
I will not argue with people who justify it. Ever. I have nothing to say to you.
There are some things in this world that are just too fucked up. Child abuse apologizm is one of them.
No.
This right here? This is exactly why our society is so fucked up. Because no one ever disciplines their kids anymore. Nope, these days it’s all “positive reinforcement!” and “parents should be friends with their kids!” and “time-out!” and “I’m going to count to three!” and “if you don’t stop that I’m telling your father!”
Newsflash: that stuff doesn’t work.
Today’s kids? Those oppressed, vulnerable little darlings? Get away with murder. I wish I could tell you the number of times I’ve been out in public and seen screaming little hooligans running around destroying things and disrupting everyone in the vicinity, while the parent does absolutely nothing but issue a few ineffectual, half-hearted shushing noises.
Kids need discipline that actually works. Period. End of story. Kids that aren’t disciplined become entitled little brats who grow up into entitled, selfish adults who are apathetic to anything but their own needs and wants.
And seriously? Quit with the discipline = abuse bullshit. No one is advocating literally beating a child, smacking them across the face, leaving bruises, or anything to that effect. When you make those kinds of claims, all you’re doing is setting up a straw man argument. Logical fallacy, you know.Some day I want to meet these magical children. The ones who run around being holy terrors and disturbing all the good adults, by flinging food in restaurants or creating mass panic in the streets, and their mystical parents who do nothing. I have yet to encounter them, and they must be as evasive as unicorns. Able to leap through time and space and the likes because I don’t know how else I could have missed them all these years, or in all my time as a parent.
I find it laughable that people actually think that not hitting a kid somehow equals doing nothing. Children still get taught boundaries, but instead of learning to fear pain, or learning how to lie to get out of being hit, they start learning how to be reasonable people who know the difference between right and wrong without the lesson of “might equals right”. Instead they learn how to make rational decisions and how to calm down to get in control of their own emotions.
Our poor world, full of hordes of mass-murdering children. Obviously the answer to a child who is confused and making a mistake is to cause them physical pain. Absolutely. Also, when your spouse does something you dislike, go ahead and hit them. When a friend of yours does something not strictly legal, give them a good smack.
OH WAIT YOU CAN’T BECAUSE THERE ARE LAWS AGAINST PHYSICALLY HITTING FULLY GROWN ADULTS.
It will never not make ME despair for humanity the arguments people will make to excuse hitting a weaker, more vulnerable person who has no protections and who are completely dependent upon another for survival. That is classic abuse. If it is abuse against a fully grown adult, then there is no fucking way you can ever convince me that it isn’t abuse against a smaller, more vulnerable human being.
Exactly what OYD says. You do not need violence to discipline a child. Even physically restraining a child (which is sometimes necessary when they might hurt themselves) makes me a bit shuddery. I can control my daughter’s behaviour with some well timed comments. YES occasionally these comments are delivered with a raised voice, but I never have to hit her and I can see VERY VERY plainly that if I ever did it would only make things worse.
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. If you can’t control your kid unless you hit them, you are DOING IT WRONG.
