Bump and grind

Before I could turn it off, the morning talk show on tv had a couple of "experts" discussing child discipline. To smack or not to smack, that was the question. Just enough of that made it to air before I could find the remote and smote it. The problem I have with this is that everyone seems to rush to the extreme cases; never touch your child or beat the daylights out of him. Why is the value of moderation in such short supply in most subjects these days? Has our judgment and appraisal gone all digital so that it is all or nothing? Can't we make discriminatory analog choices any more?

I think kids are being handled with kid gloves. We don't have play equipment because little johnnies and sallies fall down, break their crown, skuff their knee, scrape their elbow. To go on a bike we put enough equipment on them to be a test pilot. We put our kids in bubbles, in tight little cacoons, and expect them to deal with the rough and tumble of the real world without any chance to discover the pain of life's bumps and grinds. Like anything else, kids have to learn what pain is all about. I'm not talking about abuse, I'm talking about learning that you can get hurt and you can heal. We over react, rush to litigation and create fear and havoc over the slightest injury (which becomes a "provocation"). Any wonder we're raising little dough boys and girls?

A little corporal punishment establishes who's the boss real quick. You shouldn't have to negotiate that issue with a kid. A little corporal punishment serves not only to enforce discipline, it helps kids learn about and deal with the pains of life so they are not so traumitised when they suffer it in later years. A little corporal punishment teaches kids that when they abuse authority, it abuses back, often more so, and that's a pretty valuable lesson to learn.

Again, I'm not talking abuse. It's not abuse when kids tussle and wrestle, it's playful education. It's not abuse when you accidently kick your dog; even a dog knows the difference between being a kick that is accidental and malicious. There are distinctions between murder, mercy killing, collateral damage and accidental death that we have no trouble understanding. I'm sure we can appreciate the difference between a parental smack and child abuse. Frankly, the way some folks go on nagging and pleading and whining and threatening and bribing their kids as if no one else was listening, I think that is much more akin to child abuse than a quick, parental "reminder". And much more offensive to me.

I think I need to go find that remote and turn myself o