I read an interesting article that proposes that spanking your child lowers your childs IQ. I thought the article brought up several good points about how stress and emotional factors could affect a person's IQ, but I don't necessarily buy the fact that you hare intellectually harming your child by spanking him. The study does not seem to account for differences such as class, parents educational level, etc that also play a big part of a person's IQ. I also do not see how a spanking, done properly, causes more stress or emotional harm of any other discapline, done properly. Now I do agree, that frequent spankings, could cause damage emotionally, and in my opinion that also borders on abuse. I think it really comes down to parents needing to know how and when to discapline and when to just ignore a behavior or redirect. Read the article for yourself here
WARNING: YOU MAY NOT WANT TO READ THIS POST WHILE EATING... My daughter has been sick since Thursday, running a high fever. Luckily its just an ear infection and not the flu. However early Sunday morning (and I stress Early, well before 8AM) my dogs started barking and woke Shiloh up. Since I was not ready to get up, and she didn't look like she was ready to face the world either, I took her into my room and laid back down with her. I was in a light doze, and she seemed to go in and out of dozing with some wiggling in between. After one wiggling bout, she started whining and I opened my eyes just wide enough to see her holding her hand in the air. Now at 19 months old, we are heavily following the "I hurt it, so mommy kisses it and its all better" philosophy. I naturally assumed the hand or finger had been pinched, rolled on, or otherwise "hurt" and needed a mommy kiss so we could both go back to sleep. I kissed it, and that is when I realized...THERE WAS ...
I think if spanking is overused as a technique that it will not only be less effective; it will also lead to emotional distress. However; if spanking is used after other options have been exhausted, it's a highly effective technique.
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