Spanking
Few things provoke as much anxiety as the realization that you are responsible for teaching another human being right from wrong. If you care enough to be reading this, you probably don't want your child to be the brat howling for ice cream in the grocery aisle, but you also don't want to raise a meek automaton whose sole reason for obeying authority is fear of punishment. The Christian Parents child-rearing primer accuses Dr. Spock of spoiling an entire generation of Americans with his council to spare the rod; they cite a few Bible verses as proof.
On the other end of the spectrum, Dr. Sears claims that connection is key and that a "time out" may be too harsh and incomprehensible a punishment for a small child. The skeptic might wonder if Dr. Sears' assertion that staying "connected" to your child through attachment parenting is really going to cut it at more trying times. Yet most sense what Dr. Spock points out: meting out heavy punishment to a child whose understanding of right and wrong is yet unformed by social convention is not only mean but often unproductive. How to discipline a child without furnishing her with lifelong scars and traumatic horror stories to bring to the therapist is an age-old question. Here are some voices in the debate.
RELATED LINKS:
